The Churchman's 
Manual of Methods 
In Sunday Schools 



BUTLER 




Class 



Book. ^J 

Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



J he Churchman s Manual of Methods 




MODEL SUNDAY SCHOOL ROOM, 
CHURCH OF THE HOLY APOSTLES, PHILADELPHIA. 



The Churchman's 

Manual of Methods 



A Practical Sunday School Handbook 
for Clerical and Lay Workers 



BY 




ALFORD A: BUTLER, D.D. 



Former Warden, and Professor of Religious Pedagogy, in Seabury Divinity School 

Author of "How to Study the Life of Christ"; 

"How Shall we Worship God?" 



MILWAUKEE 

The Young Churchman Co. 

jqo6 



JEM St 70 

, J3% 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two GoDies Received 

MAY 11 \ 906 

d£ Copyright Entry 
CLASS C(J XXc. No, 

1 3 ? 3 <>y 

COPY g. 



COPYRIGHT BY 

THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. 
1906. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

Preface vii 

I. — Fundamental Truths 1 

II. — Child Nature 8 

III. — Organization and Administration 30 

General Officers, and Duties. 

IV. — Organization and Administration 44 

Teachers and Classes. 

V. — Order and Discipline 67 

VI.— Worship 84 

VII. — Instruction, its First Principles 97 

VIII. — Instruction in Primary Grades 109 

IX. — Instruction in Main-School Grades - - - - 136 

X. — Instruction in Bible Class Grades - - - - 169 

XI.— Instruction by Special Systems 190 

XII. — Teacher's Meetings, and Teacher-Training - 204 

XIII. — Helpful Books, and Appliances 214 

Index 223 



PREFACE. 

This Manual has grown out of the writer's expe- 
rience. As Sunday School teacher, superintendent, 
clergyman, or professor of Religious Pedagogy, he has 
for over thirty-five years spent his happiest hours in 
some form of Sunday School work. Nothing is here 
presented which has not passed the test of his own ex- 
perience, or that of fellow laborers whose words are 
commended in the chapters of this volume. 

The writer believes that the highest and holiest 
work that can be done for American childhood, the 
American Church, and the American Nation, is to edu- 
cate the children of to-day in the love and fear of God. 
This book is sent forth with the hope, and prayer, that 
it may help those who are trying to do the work, to 
enter into the joy of their labor. 



CHAPTEE I. 

FUNDAMENTAL TBUTHS. 

"Other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
is Jesus Christ." — St. Paul. 

The Eelation of the Child to the Church 
was created at the font. It is a covenant relation; it 
is a sacramental relation. In this case it is a covenant 
between a little child and God. It is impossible to con- 
ceive of a covenant more sacred. Who answers for the 
child ? Its parents and godparents. Who promises for 
God ? The Church. She has received the child as 
God's child. She has accepted him as a member of 
Christ, she has pronounced him born again, and made 
an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven through the 
power of the Holy Spirit. There is no earthly relation 
more binding than that between an immortal soul and 
the Church of God. In this, as in every covenant, the 
new relation brings a new responsibility to all concerned 
in it — the parents, the sponsors, the Church. And the 
less the others realize their responsibility the more must 
the Church realize hers. The others may die to this 
world, may even die to the world to come; but the 



2 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Church cannot die, cannot escape her responsibility. 
She having received the child into God's family, in 
God's name, must see that he is taught those truths 
"which a Christian ought to know and believe to his 
soul's health/' and that he is "virtuously brought up 
to live a Godly and a Christian life." The principle 
of the Church's responsibility for the religious training 
of her children is rooted and grounded in the very 
foundations of God's Church under both the Old, and 
the New Covenant. 

Is the American Church living up to her divinely 
imposed responsibility ? 

An earnest Bishop answers : 

"I am brought to the painful conviction that our 
pastoral care for the children comes very far short of 
the Church's ideal, very far short of our absolute and 
sacred duty. I have gone into Sunday Schools, and by 
personal observation have tried to see their methods and 
results. And I am appalled by what I see; the very 
low appreciation, both among the the clergy and the 
people, of the sacredness, the immense importance, and 
the awful responsibility of the care for children's souls. 

"If I speak plainly it is because I remember how our 
Lord's own lips declared the holy dignity of work for 
young souls when He said: 'Whoso receiveth one such 
little child in my Name, receiveth Me' ; because I take 
to myself, with you, His awful warning for failure in 
such duty: *Whoso shall offend (or permit to fall) one 
of these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for 
him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and 
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.' How 
precious, as He sees it, is the soul of one little child! 
Have you or I, dear brethren, through pastoral neglect 
or indifference, left one such to stumble and be lost? 



FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS. 3 

It was not to parents, sacred as their duty is, nor to the 
parish priest or pastor, but to the Apostle in his high 
office, that the same Lord put His great test of faithful 
love to Him in the care for children's souls. Twice, in 
answer to the earnest profession of love, the proof was 
demanded in Teed My sheep/ But for the third, the 
last, the highest proof, it was Teed My lambs/ " 

The Relation of the Child to the Pastor is 
founded upon the child's relation to the Church. The 
spiritual head of every congregation, whether he be 
Bishop, priest, or deacon, is the official representative 
of the Church before God and man. Every spiritual 
duty to the child which rests upon his parish or mission, 
rests upon him. If he cannot perform the duty himself, 
then he must personally see that it is well and faith- 
fully done. His first duty is neither to the strong nor 
the rich, but to those who most need his help : the weak, 
the ignorant, the helpless souls of his flock. Is the 
average parish priest doing his duty to the children of 
his cure ? 

"I feel that the Church is losing, if it has not already 
lost, the proportions of pastoral work which Christ 
intended. I find in almost all our parishes, that in our 
services, our preaching, our use of Sundays, our methods 
of work, the grown people occupy almost all the time 
and interest. The children do not come to church. 
They are not expected to come. Place is not provided 
for them. They are often made to feel that they are in 
the way. The sermons are written without a thought 
of them 

"Nay, worse, I have reason to know that some of 
the clergy treat the Sunday School almost as an irk- 
some duty, which they are glad to get through as quickly 
as possible, that their strength may be saved for what 



4 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

they count the important services ; where beauty, music, 
and the best efforts of the pastor's intellect are devoted 
to pleasing, and perhaps instructing, older persons and 
contributors, who are counted of more importance than 
the children 

"But no multiplication of services, no machinery of 
guilds, no diligence of work for older persons, can 
excuse a lack of pastoral love and work for the children. 
If it is not possible under the present methods of Church 
work to give great pastoral care to the children, then 
our methods must be wrong; radically wrong. But I 
deny that it is impossible. The busiest pastor, if he 
have the pastor's heart for children, can so order his 
methods as to accomplish it. There are those whose 
work is of the largest and most exacting, who do this 
grandly; and their success proves its possibility for 
others. 

"Let the rector of the busiest parish put the spiritual 
work for children, the real, loving, spiritual care for 
them, in the place which the Lord claims for it, and he 
will not only find time to attend to it personally, but 
he will very soon know that in this fulfilment of holy 
responsibilities there are some of the very sweetest joys 
and greatest consolations of pastorship."* 

The Pastor's Relation to the Sunday School 
finds its root in his relation to the Church of God, and 
his consequent responsibility for the Christian nurture 
of every child of God in his parish or mission. The 
Sunday School exists, not to help him evade, but to help 
him meet his sacred responsibilities. ]STo superintend- 
ent, no body of teachers can fulfil the duty which rests 
upon him as the spiritual teacher and guardian of the 



* Condensed from an Address by Bishop Paret. 



FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS. 5 

souls of his flock. No Sunday School machinery can 
take the place of personality,, and, above all, of the 
pastor's personality. The Sunday School is organized 
to extend his personal influence, to enlarge his working 
power, and to increase his efficiency. He cannot do all 
its work; his body is not strong enough, nor his days 
long enough. But he is its head, and as such, must 
plan all its spiritual activity. He is its heart, and his 
love for Christ's "little ones" must kindle a like flame 
in the hearts of his helpers. He*is its soul, and his own 
zeal must be the example, and his own devotion the 
inspiration of all his fellow laborers. 

Doubtless some overworked pastor is ready to ex- 
claim : "I have so many other duties that I have no 
time to attend to the Sunday School or its children." 
But what would we think of a fireman who said, "I am 
so busy saving the building that I have no time to rescue 
the children" ? What would you think of a policeman 
who said, "I am too busy looking after persons of prom- 
inence and property to attend to children"? Did He 
who came to save all the world, and had less than four 
years in which to do it, say Send the mothers away, 
send them away, I have no time to attend to children ? 
And what do you suppose He thinks of us when we say, 
"I have no time to attend to the children" ? Your first 
duty and mine is to understand and help those who most 
need our aid, that is, the weakest and most helpless 
members of our flock. If we do not know how to do 
this, we must learn how. The pastor who does not 
know the door that opens into a child's heart, and the 
path that leads into a child's life is shut out of the most 
blessed opportunities of his ministry. 

The Definite Purpose of the Sunday School 
should be clearly seen from the start. To know exactly 



6 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the end for which we are working decides our methods, 
and largely creates our ideals. Our organization must 
be a school in reality, as well as in name. It must be 
the best of all schools ; for it is God's school, its children 
are God's children, and its instruction is in God's 
truth. But we must make it more than a school for 
imparting knowledge, even when that knowledge is 
found in Holy Scripture. Instructing the children in 
truth and doctrine is not the end, but the means to a 
higher end. Their intellectual grasp of the truth, even 
of God's truth, should never satisfy us. The purpose of 
the Sunday School is not mental but moral, not intel- 
lectuality but Christianity, not the imparting of knowl- 
edge but the building of character, after the measure of 
the stature of the fulness of Christ. 

This purpose is written large in every office of the 
Prayer Book which has to do with the child's relation 
to God, and His Church. Bead carefully the Baptismal 
Office, and you will see it in every exhortation to man 
and prayer to God. Bead the Office for Confirmation, 
and note that it is all based on God's Covenant with the 
Child in Holy Baptism. And note how the heart of 
the Confirmation Office finds utterance in prayers for the 
hallowing power of the Holy Spirit. Bead again the 
explanation of it all in the Church's Catechism and note 
how plainly Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist 
are all linked together and made sacred steps towards 
one clear and definite spiritual end, the building of a 
Christ-like character. 

iSTo other Christian teachers have set before them so 
clearly the great principles and definite purpose of the 
child's religious instruction, as have the teachers of the 
Church. Ours ought to be the best religious school in 
America, and our scholars, models of Christian culture 
and conduct. If they are not so it is not the fault of 



FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS. 



the Church's truth and doctrine, but of our own imper- 
fect comprehension of the end for which Christ founded 
His Kingdom, and the definite place and purpose of 
every child of God in the life of that Kingdom. 



CHAPTEE II. 
CHILD NATUKE. 

"When I ivas a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a 
child, I thought as a child. ff — St. Paul. 

Until within a few years the popular idea was that 
in education there were two essential factors, the matter 
to be taught, and the teacher to deliver it. Of course 
children were to be present, but they were no part of 
the problem. If the teacher was able to state clearly 
the facts, that was enough. If the child was too stupid 
to retain the facts offered him, his was the blame and 
the loss. 

The nineteenth century was an age of research in all 
departments of knowledge. The greatest find in the 
educational field was the discovery that the child is a 
factor, is the essential factor, in the educational prob- 
lem. It was discovered that facts are not taught for 
their own sake, that the teacher's training is not for 
himself, that the purpose of his preparation is not to 
teach a lesson, nor to instruct a class; but the real end 
of all educational effort is the development of the child ! 
We now realize that the child was not made for the 



CHILD NATURE. 9 

truth, but the truth was revealed for the child, for an 
immortal soul created in the image of God. 

The sorrowful side of the situation is, that although 
the world of science has accepted the discovery of the 
child, and our national school system has adopted this 
discovery as a part of its vast system, yet the Sunday 
Schools of the land, and particularly those of our own 
Apostolic Church, are so absorbed by their hundreds of 
text books, and thousands of leaflets, by the difficulty 
of arranging the classes, and teaching the lesson, that 
there is little time left to consider the child or his 
nature. 

The Study of Child Nature teaches us (a) that 
childhood differs widely from manhood. The first ques- 
tion that a teacher needs to answer is: "What is a 
boy ?" Until that question is answered, no real instruc- 
tion is possible. The frequent answer, "A little man/' 
tells exactly what a boy is not. It is utterly misleading 
to think that a child differs from an adult mainly in 
having a smaller and weaker body, a smaller and weaker 
brain, a smaller and weaker moral nature, and that if 
he had the size and strength of an adult, he would be a 
man. If an infant were enlarged to adult size he would 
not be a man, but a monstrosity. Its arms and legs 
would be too short, its body too long. Its chest would 
protrude like a cone, and its monster head would be 
seven times the size of a man's, while its internal organs 
would be even more unlike those of an adult. 

The child's body is smaller, yet it is more perfectly 
adapted to its environment than are the bodies of most 
adults. A smaller brain? Yes; but one that in early 
years does a larger amount of work, proportionately, 
than the brain of a man. Morally weak? No; neither 
weak nor strong, only undeveloped ; a boy of seven years 



10 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

is neither moral nor immoral ; he is only unmoral. The 
boy is no more a small man than a caterpillar is a small 
butterfly. It is true that the grub will, under right 
conditions, develop into a butterfly; but one important 
condition is that we recognize that they are different, 
that they need different food, different treatment, and, 
above all, that each must be allowed to grow in its own 
way. To insist that they have the same nature, and are 
to be given the same food and treatment, is the surest 
way of killing off one or both of them. Childhood is 
not a fragment of manhood; it is the purest, sweetest, 
and in many respects, the best period of human life. 
No adult life comes so near perfection, so near the lost 
life of Paradise. 

(&) The Nature of a Child, is different at different 
ages. We recognize that a man at twenty differs from 
the same man at forty, and still more widely at ninety. 
In childhood this difference is greater still ; and, what is 
more important to remember, a change which it takes 
twenty years to make in an adult, may occur in a child 
in three or five years. A man at forty-five is nearer a 
man of twenty-five, than a girl of nine is to another of 
five; or that a boy of fifteen is to a boy of ten. And 
this is true not only of physical development, but also, 
under normal conditions, of intellectual, social, and 
moral development. 

(c) Children of the same age differ from each 
other, and often greatly differ. Children are alike and 
unlike; they have a generic likeness and a specific un- 
likeness. The only way we can truly govern, or teach 
a class is to understand its separate individuals. The 
class does not exist apart from Charles, and Henry, 
and James, and John, and Adam, and Philip, who com- 



CHILD NATURE. 11 

pose it. Never allow the theoretical child to take the 
place of the child of flesh and blood before you. 

As soon as an infant is old enough to have individ- 
uality of face and feature, he begins to manifest indi- 
viduality in temper and temperament, in likes and dis- 
likes. The wise mother begins to study each child as 
soon as it is cradled in her arms. She knows that dif- 
ferent children must be managed differently, disciplined 
differently, and taught differently; for the method that 
helps one often hurts another, and the discipline that 
saves one may ruin another. We must remember that 
every child born into the world is a new creation, not 
the duplicate of some other child. Every infant is an 
original soul, and if we would have him develop as God 
intended, we must help him to increase in wisdom and 
stature along the lines of his own God-given originality. 

The Place of Child Study in Education is already 
recognized. 

(a) In Secular Instruction there is hardly a state 
in the Union that will admit to its schools a teacher 
untrained in child study. We rightly demand of 
every workman we employ a knowledge of the mate- 
rial in which he works. The carpenter who did not 
understand the difference between oak and pine, would 
be called an ignoramus, and a blacksmith who did not 
know the difference between iron and lead would be 
counted an imbecile. And yet in the highest sphere 
of all earthly labor, among those who work with the 
souls of men, we meet artisans who do not know that a 
human mind at six years of age and at twenty-six, is as 
different as lead is from iron; and that the mind of a 
child at eight and at eighteen differs as widely as pine 
does from oak. 



12 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Children do not see, do not feel, do not understand 
or reason like adults. A child's eye may see more 
forms than an adult's, but the child does not know at 
what he is looking. What a person truly sees is made 
up of two factors : what the eye is looking at, and what 
the eye has actually seen in the past. The same is true 
of what a child hears, feels, understands, or thinks. 
And when we remember the great gulf of inexperience 
which exists between a child and an educated adult, 
we should realize that although both may be members of 
the same household, and sit at the same table, never- 
theless they are living in different worlds. 

The children of Boston, Mass., are not celebrated 
for lack of intelligence. Yet a carefully conducted 
examination of children entering the public schools 
(age, five to seven) brought out, among many others, 
the following facts: One-fifth of them did not know 
the location of the throat, or forehead, and the same 
number could not tell where milk came from. One-half 
had no idea where wood came from, had never seen a 
sheep, or a sunset. Two-thirds of them had never seen 
a mountain, or a drop of dew. A like examination in 
the public schools of Kansas City showed like results, 
differing only as to the particular objects of which the 
children were ignorant. As a rule, all this is recognized 
by the secular teacher. He knows that the child's eyes 
and ears are not an adult's eyes and ears; that the 
child is living in a different world from himself, and 
he studies to discover the location and boundaries of the 
child's world, to put himself in the place of the child, 
and to look at things from the child's point of view. 
Because to him something is "as plain as A B C," he 
does not begin his instruction by saying : "Now, child- 
ren, you all know," and then scold them because they 
pay no attention to what they are incapable of knowing 



CHILD NATURE. 13 

or understanding. I wish I could say the same of 
Sunday School instructors. 

(6) In Religious Instruction there is little knowl- 
edge of child nature, and little use made of those sane 
educational methods which are based upon it. Yet, 
if the secular teacher ought to know child nature in 
order to impart earthly truth, how much more necessary 
it is that the religious teacher should be prepared to 
impart heavenly truth. And if children do not under- 
stand the material things they can see, how can they 
understand things moral and spiritual which they can- 
not see ? Thousands of devout Sunday School teachers 
are to-day wasting time and strength in bewildering the 
children they desire to teach, because, being ignorant 
of the limitations of their pupils, they are talking to 
them in the foreign language of theology (it might as 
well be Greek), in order to convey to them truths which 
are beyond the remotest bounds of childhoods experi- 
ence or comprehension. 

Carefully gathered statistics show that, in the aver- 
age public school, one-fifth of the children under seven 
years do not know the meaning of the word "God," and 
to one-third of them the word "Christ" conveys no idea. 
Five-sixths of them do not know what the word "Bap- 
tism" stands for; and the same number do not know a 
single hymn, or even a prayer. jSTinety-nine out of a 
hundred were ignorant of a single fact of Bible history, 
and not one child knew anything of the history of the 
Church ! And yet we have heard very well-intentioned 
clergymen talk to infant classes about "the early Christ- 
ian martyrs." What do you suppose the children thought 
about it ? Nothing ; for they had no knowledge on which 
to base a thought. But some foxy ones probably guessed 
that the "martyrs" were bad children who got killed for 



14 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

going out too early in the morning. And we have 
known superintendents and teachers (in addition to 
ourselves), who talked to children with equal earnest- 
ness, and unwisdom, and then were filled with sorrow 
and pain to discover that the average small boy actually 
preferred to stick pins in his neighbor rather than to 
be instructed ( ?) in Church history or doctrine. 

But we who are Bible class teachers must not flatter 
ourselves with the idea that we have escaped like blun- 
ders in teaching because our pupils are old enough to 
know something about the Bible, ecclesiastical history, 
and Church doctrine. Yes, they are old enough to 
know; but do they know? I fear if we should hold a 
written examination we should be shocked to find that 
age does not mean a knowledge of religious truth, and 
that in these days of devotionless homes, the religious 
ignorance of the younger children is duplicated by their 
older brothers and sisters. 

A Knowledge of Child Nature is Indispensable in 
Religious Instruction. Our safest guide in the educa- 
tion of a child is the child himself. What shall we 
teach ? Only what the child is able to understand. How 
shall we teach? In the manner in which each child is 
able to learn; the mind of the child must decide the 
method of the teacher. How shall we organize the 
school? According to the mental and spiritual condi- 
tion of the children. How shall we enforce discipline ? 
According to the age and moral development of the 
children. 

Nothing can take the place of a knowledge of the 
child. Intellectual culture, faithfulness in preparation 
and, above all, personal consecration and devotion are 
of supreme importance ; yet if a teacher possesses all of 
these, and does not understand her children, she will 



CHILD NATURE. 15 

fail to teach, even though her personal character is a 
benediction. When we remember that the religions 
training of the child decides the strength or weakness 
of all his after life ; that a child's early impressions are 
those which no later experience can ever, wholly oblit- 
erate: and when we remember that it is the child's 
moral and spiritual training which decides his own 
character, his influence upon the characters of his com- 
panions, and that character here means destiny here- 
after; when we try to realize all this, then we catch a 
glimpse of the tremendous difference it makes whether 
we do, or do not, understand the nature of the immortal 
souls we are trying to train and to guide to God. 

(a) The Period of Infancy is almost wholly the 
Age of Instinct. It is one of wonderful interest, and of 
supreme importance educationally; it belongs, however, 
to the home, not the school. 

(b) The Period of Early Childhood extends 
from the third to the sixth birthday. Somewhere be- 
tween the third and fourth birthday, falls the line which 
separates babyhood from early childhood. We named 
the former the Age of Instinct, this we may call the 
Age of Impulse. 

Physical Forces Dominate. — They are seen in rapid 
growth, in impulsive and ceaseless activity. The child 
when awake is never still. God has made it the child's 
duty to grow, and there is no healthy growth without 
activity. Hands, feet, eyes, ears, all are hungry to do 
something; and doing is a delight. Making a noise, for 
example, is a threefold joy. It is a joy to the mouth to 
do it, a joy to the ear to hear it, and a joy to the mind 
to know that it is his own mouth, his own ear, and his 
own self that is doing the whole business. It is all a 



16 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

part of God's educational method. God never says 
"don't" to any healthy activity, and we ought not to be 
foolish or wicked enough to do so. Provide a proper 
place and then allow the child to grow according to his 
divinely given nature. 

Mental Activity is shown in a growing curiosity to 
see things, hear things, and to know their names; also 
in the exercise of a growing memory, the beginning of 
the mental function of finding and recording knowl- 
edge. Yet the eager curiosity is only intermittent, and 
the easy memorizing is followed by easy forgetting. 
This instability makes the child singularly open to men- 
tal suggestion; the bright presentation of a helpful ac- 
tivity usually causes him to drop his wrong-doing for a 
right one. For this reason we must avoid emphasizing 
or even speaking of what we do not want him to say, 
or what Ave do not want him to do. 

Social Activity now begins in earnest. The child's 
introduction to school life opens to him a new world. 
In babyhood he had the notion that he was the centre 
of the world; he has been allowed, perhaps, to be the 
king of his domestic world; but now the king must be- 
come a subject in the world of School. Happily the 
excitement of new surroundings, and the example of 
older pupils robs the needed lesson of some of its pain- 
fulness. He early learned how to be active and not hurt 
himself; now comes the harder lesson of learning how 
to act without hurting others. To have his own rights 
crossed by the rights of others and not resent it, is a 
new hardship. Self-control for self's sake comes com- 
paratively easy, but self-control for another's sake is a 
different matter. To what can we appeal for unselfish 
conduct — to his conscience? It is not yet developed. 
To his moral understanding? He has none. To his 



CHILD NATURE. 17 

sense of justice to others ? His own rights are dearer to 
him. There is only one ground for effective appeal: 
His little heart is tender and sympathetic; a wise appeal 
there is seldom made in vain. 

Emotional Activity at this age is largely developed 
on the side of self. "I," "me/' "mine," are the words 
he constantly uses. The desire for pleasure and praise, 
the opportunity to gratify vanity, these are the uncon- 
scious motives behind his many activities. The appeal 
must be made to their better side, to the pleasure of 
doing good, and the praise of those he loves. 

The Moral Nature at this age is latent, not lacking ; 
for even in babyhood a child suffers if deceived, resents 
being "fooled," or is angry at what he feels is unjust. 
He suffers because these acts do violence to instinctive 
truth-emotions, and justice-emotions, which he possesses 
long before he knows their names, or the high and holy 
ends for which they were given. But the child must not 
be judged by adult standards. The secretive child may 
take another's property' but he is not stealing; the 
imaginative child may tell a wrong story, but it is not 
a lie. In both cases the action is neither moral or 
immoral, it is simply unmoral. It is the expression of 
an undisciplined, emotional impulse. 

Throughout this period the educational aim must 
be, not the destruction of incipient evil, but the cultiva- 
tion of incipient good. "Don't" has done untold injury. 
Eemember the warning of the Divine Teacher. It may 
be comparatively easy to attack and drive out of the 
child one wrong tendency but unless we do so by filling 
its place with a good one, we are only sweeping and 
garnishing his heart for the entrance of seven other and 
more wicked impulses, making the last state of the child 
worse than the first. How early should his education 



18 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

begin? Dr. Holmes' wise answer, "About an hundred 
years before he is born/' is original in its form. But 
an inspired author had voiced the same truth over 1800 
years before. (Eead II. Timothy i. 5.) 

(c) The Period of Middle Childhood extends 
from the sixth to the ninth birthday. 

Physical Characteristics. — Sense perception, or sen- 
sation, is at its best. The child is restless as in the pre- 
ceding period, but his activity is less impulsive, more 
guided by reason. He is beginning to realize that some 
things must b& done, in order that other things may be 
enjoyed. He must get up on time, and dress on time, or 
he cannot eat breakfast with his father. It is most wise 
to cultivate this beginning of "necessary perception," 
and to emphasize it in needed discipline. The omission 
of discipline teaches the child to believe that nothing 
is necessary, except that he should do as he likes, and 
get what he desires. This dangerous attitude is made 
easy, because the child's physical senses are as active as 
an adult's, while his understanding is only partially de- 
veloped. 

Mental Characteristics. — Memory is now at its best. 
The child delights to commit anything in which he is 
interested. Attention is alert, but impulsive, intermit- 
tent; easily caught, but difficult to retain. His hunger 
to know things and their qualities, is no longer satisfied 
with names only. But his ideas about things are few, 
often whimsical; for imagination is so active it takes 
the place of ideas, and sometimes even the place of 
truth. 

The child's great physical activity, great activity of 
imagination, and great hunger to know the meaning of 
all he sees and hears, form a combination which dom- 



CHILD NATURE. 19 

inates this period and makes it emphatically the Age of 
Imitation. He sees the real world about him, but he is 
not permitted to enter it, so he creates a world for him- 
self, the world of "make-believe." He imagines what 
the life of the carpenter is and imitates it ; and for the 
time being, lives it strenuously. In the same way he 
lives the life of the coal man, the ice man, the teacher, 
doctor, or parson. He feels that by imitating adult 
life he will in some way be able to understand it. 

Social Characteristics are changing rapidly. In the 
new world of school, the child is disciplined, and obliged 
to take humbler views of self. In order to play with 
others he is compelled to consider others, and to sub- 
ordinate his own desires to the rules of the game, and 
the wishes of the majority. In play he finds a joyous 
use for feet, and hands, and voice. His new social 
world absorbs him. He runs away from home to enter 
it, he disobeys, perhaps deceives in order to join his 
playmates. In the street and on the playground he 
follows his dominant impulse and imitates all he sees 
and hears. Words, deeds, dress, conduct, all are 
recorded by keen senses and active memory. And 
memory repeats everything that touches it. Slang, pro- 
fanity, the true word, the foul word, the prayer, all are 
the same to him. His moral emotions and will-power 
are both too weak to be guide or protector. The situa- 
tion is a grave one, and it ought to make us realize the 
supreme importance of the child's playmates and com- 
panions. 

Emotional Characteristics are mainly centered in 
self. That is considered "right" which mother and 
teacher allow, and that is "wrong" which they forbid. 
Yet, mental judgment and moral choice are beginning 
to influence conduct; consequently, good and bad emo- 



20 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

tions are beginning, and the foundation is being laid 
for those moral and spiritual habits which determine 
character. Appeals for good conduct must be addressed 
to his affections, to his self-respect, to his desire for 
praise, or approval; i.e., he must follow the good, the 
true, the right, the noble if he would be happy, and 
receive the respect and approval of those he loves. It 
is an age when example counts for more than words ; for 
the child's hearing and seeing are at their best, and 
what mother and teacher live, is far more powerful 
than what they say. 

(d) The Period of Later Childhood extends 
from the ninth to the twelfth birthday. It is pre- 
eminently, though not exclusively, the Age of Habit. 

Physical Characteristics — are still dominant, but 
brain growth is practically completed and mental forces 
are now struggling for the first place. Activity con- 
tinues and is more intentional, but whether more con- 
structive or destructive is decided by the child's teach- 
ers, in the home, in school, and on the playground. It 
is a time to watch, and pray, and wisely guide. A box 
of tools, or pencils and paints have changed many a 
boy's destructive tendencies into industrial work. Now, 
also, the boy begins to form rude habits, and repulsive 
or vulgar mannerisms which, left uncorrected, will last 
a lifetime. 

On an elevated platform before a large audience, a 
learned physician was shown to a seat. He soon lifted 
one knee to the level of his chin, resting his foot on the 
seat of his chair, while the opposite arm was thrown 
over and behind the chair's high back. In this astonish- 
ing position, or an equally repulsive variation of it, he 
sat until called to make an address, which proved as 



CHILD NATURE. 21 

admirable as his manners were abominable. When were 
those manners formed? Certainly not in adult years. 
Before ten is the time for cultivating habits of polite- 
ness at school, good manners at the table, and in the 
home; and, most important of all, habits of physical 
cleanness and personal purity. 

Mental Characteristics make this the golden age of 
verbal memory. The healthy child delights to commit, 
and now remembers what he commits. Eeason has de- 
veloped and facts are sought for the sake of the ideas 
behind them. The mind is beginning to group and 
classify its knowledge. The time has come to commence 
the systematic study of history, and doctrine, and sci- 
ence. Judgment is active, yet crude, and needs careful 
guidance. To fix in your children habits of observation 
and attention, of accurate memorizing and exact verbal 
statement, will strengthen not only their attention, 
memory and expression, it will also improve and 
strengthen their judgment. 

Social Characteristics. — The Child now knows his 
position, he is only a part of the family, a member of 
the school, a fragment of society. He also begins to 
feel that he has certain responsibilities growing out of 
these relations. He should therefore be given definite 
duties not only at Sunday and day school, but in and 
about the church and home, at the store, or office, and 
in social life; only in this way can a sense of personal 
responsibility, the very foundation of all morality and 
religion, be trained and strengthened. 

Emotional Characteristics. — The Child is gradually 
realizing himself; not merely as a sensuous, but as an 
intellectual and moral being. And in each of these 
spheres he is rapidly forming habits that will bless 
or curse his whole life. Conscience has awakened, but 



22 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

whether its moral forces or his new animal appetites 
and lusts shall shape his conduct is an open question. 
He begins to have visions of an unknown future; he 
dreams of good, and he dreams of evil, and everything 
seems equally possible. He needs individual guidance, 
he needs high ideals, noble plans, concrete examples of 
moral heroism. He needs to be helped to cultivate man- 
liness, self-control, self-denial, and loyalty to conscience. 
Eight, truth, and duty should be made clear to him and 
crystalized in deeds and conduct. Train his will for 
strength, help him to choose for himself, guide him to 
choose the good. Above all, this is the period in which 
to fix moral and spiritual habits, regularity in private 
devotion, purity in words and conduct, in mind and 
heart. It is wise for us to help him quietly and unob- 
trusively, by influencing his reading, his games, his 
choice of companions, and, above all, by our own ex- 
ample, in regularity of life, and habits of devotion. 

The Whole Period of Adolescence covers nine 
or ten years. It is the period of the body's greatest 
growth, and most rapid sexual development; while the 
mental and emotive changes are almost or quite as 
great. In the nine years from her eleventh to her twen- 
tieth birthday, the girl develops from simple childhood 
into womanly maturity. The boy in the ten years be- 
tween his twelfth and twenty-second birthday changes 
from boyish purility to manhood's maturity. In both 
cases, the nine or ten years bring greater changes than 
the next forty years. And these changes great in num- 
ber are still greater in their importance. The life of 
the youth, and the life of the race are largely decided 
by the changes of adolescence. 

"If a boy grows up alone at the age of games and 
sports, and neither learns to play ball, nor row, nor 



CHILD NATURE. 23 

sail, nor ride, nor skate, nor fish, nor shoot, probably he 
will be sedentary to the end of his days. The sexual 
passion expires after a protracted reign; but it is well 
known that its peculiar manifestations in a given in- 
dividual depend almost entirely on the habits he may 
form during the early period of its activity. Exposure 
to bad company then makes him a loose liver all his 
days; chastity kept at first makes the same easy later 
on/' — Prof. James. 

It is not too much to say that adolescence is a new 
physical birth, for the forces of human nature which 
were plastic, or in a state of flux at the first birth seem 
to return to a like condition. But, whereas, in infancy 
the child was passive clay in the hands of a mother's 
love and experience, in adolescence, when the plastic 
material is boiling and seething with life's strongest 
emotions, it is in the keeping of an immature and inex- 
perienced youth who understands neither his body, his 
soul, or his passions which are driving him — he knows 
not where. 

The resulting changes manifest themselves in most 
diverse ways. "With some it may result merely in 
greater physical activity. With others it gives an im- 
pulse to intellectual work; with still others it leads to 
social and altruistic activity. A love affair, poetry, re- 
ligious or political fanaticism, bizarre actions, general 
perversity, and insanity, are all possible outlets. The 
whole subject is most complicated. It involves the most 
profound questions of life and heredity. What the 
phenomena of adolescence may be in any given case de- 
pends largely upon one's general health, education, 
hereditary tendencies, temperament, and like condi- 
tions." — Dr. Burstham. 

At no other time in the child's life is he in such sore 
need; not of stern restraint, or even open guidance, but 



24 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

of the wise and loving influence of a Christian father, 
elder brother, or friend. 

(e) The Period of Early Adolescence extend- 
ing from about the twelfth to the sixteenth birthday, is 
one of great, and rapid physical changes which neces- 
sarily bring with them great physical perils, and, what 
is more important, great moral dangers and spiritual 
possibilities, making this, what is too seldom realized, 
the Age of Moral Crisis. 

Physical Characteristics are seen in a growth so 
rapid and uneven that the boy does not know what to do 
with it. His arms and legs are too long, his hands and 
feet are too large, they are constantly getting in his way. 
He is awkward, he knows it, and is uncomfortable. If 
he feels lazy, and the feeling is now natural, he indulges 
in it. To blame or to ridicule him is a grave mistake. 
To withhold from the boy information of the meaning, 
and the danger, of this period of puberty is a sin against 
his physical and moral nature. He needs the truth, he 
needs sympathy, he needs high ideals, and we must lov- 
ingly make him feel that he needs them. 

Mental Characteristics are chiefly manifested by the 
different ways in which he shows that he is fully con- 
scious of his own individuality, will and rights, and that 
he intends to exercise them. He often does this in con- 
tradictory ways. He may be bashful or wilful, reticent 
or self-assertive and stubborn. It is the girl's tom-boy 
age, and her brother's bad-boy age. Our true aim is to 
help the boy to realize that individuality means respon- 
sibility; that rights are inseparable from duties; and 
that a strong will is not for self-assertion, but self- 
control. We should appeal to the boy's reason, not to 
force; we should give him more of our confidence, and 
more of life's work and responsibility. 



CHILD NATURE. 25 

Emotional Characteristics are mainly manifested in 
forms of self-feeling, and self-power. It is the age of 
teasing, bullying, fighting, and doing "stunts," which 
usually spring from ambition, or a desire to "show off." 
If a boy is humorous he is given to practical jokes or 
irreverence. Near the close of this period there is a 
strong growth of the religious emotions, generally seen 
in girls a year earlier than in boys, and in both demand- 
ing sympathetic and careful instruction. Filled with 
conflicting hopes, clashing aims, and contending ambi- 
tions, which they do not understand, and cannot inter- 
pret even to themselves, the girl and boy of this period 
need more than at any other age, wise and sympathetic 
guidance, and loving companionship. Above all others, 
this is the time for Confirmation and is so marked out 
by the condition of the child, the experience of the race. 

Social Characteristics. — The sexes are usually mutu- 
ally repellant, and are separated in their amusements. 
The girls form cliques, and the boys organize gangs for 
neighborhood fights, destructions, stealings, or some 
other phase of forbidden peril, or lawlessness. 

Natural Interests find expression in those activities 
which call for physical power, individual skill, and per- 
sonal courage; such as fishings hunting, and camping 
out. The heroic idea dominates all others; yet the 
records of the athlete and the soldier share the boy's 
attention with the dime novel. The girl may sometimes 
ghare in her brother's ideals, but he sees nothing attrac- 
tive in her new interest in home life, and domestic 
activity. 

(/) The Period of Middle Adolescence, extend- 
ing from about the sixteenth to the nineteenth birthday, 
(in girls a year younger), is more than any other the 
Age of Romance and Ideality, 



2G THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Physical Characteristics. — A slow and even growth; 
the youth at the end of the period reaching nearly his 
full height, weight, and manly vigor. There is a 
healthy desire to exercise, and a love of manly games. 
Nervous development follows closely upon the physical 
and often results in unexpected changes in face and 
form. The child who has hitherto resembled one parent 
may so greatly change as to resemble the other, or 
neither parent. Such outward changes usually register 
the result of an inward conflict between ancestral ten- 
dencies. Traits never noticed before now appear, and 
sometimes become dominant. 

Mental Characteristics. — The brain attains full size. 
Imagination becomes normal, active, creative. The 
youth's aimless day-dreaming is passing into visions 
and ideals of an active life, and into endeavors to decide 
upon his own life work. Eeason is strong, but not yet 
able to master the emotions. 

Emotional Characteristics are the most active; the 
development of sexual emotions is seen in the greater 
care given to personal adornment, choice of books and 
recreations. Boys and girls are mutually attractive; a 
natural emotion, to be kept manly, womanly, pure. 
There is great danger at this age, in flashy literature, 
flirtations, and undue familiarity. Indulging in these 
is playing with passion and fire; it means the degrada- 
tion of pure affections and God-given emotions. 

Unselfish feelings and desires are making their in- 
fluence felt. Sympathy is becoming active, and is 
shown in generous help, and nobler aims for self and 
others. Conscience is active, expressing itself not alone 
in severe criticism of self, but also in the criticism of 
others, sometimes of those older than self ; and may be- 
come morbid and cynical. It is the age for moral de- 



CHILD NATURE. 27 

cision and moral conquest. If not confirmed now, the 
youth will prohably not be, until he feels the responsi- 
bilities of fatherhood; and if not then, probably never. 
It is also the age of immoral decision, the crime- 
beginning age: the natural result of false ideals, per- 
verted moral standards or irreligious decisions. 

Social Characteristics. — The enjoyment of society 
and particularly of the society of the opposite sex, is 
apt to be a controling motive for a year or two. It is a 
normal condition, but to be harmless it must be kept 
on a high plane, and within the pure surroundings of 
the home, and the Church. Social clubs and associa- 
tions may be helpful if controlled by unselfish, or re- 
ligious motives. 

The Natural Interests of this period all belong to 
the romantic side of life. This is seen in the books and 
papers on the young man's table, and in the interest he 
takes in the love affairs of others older than himself. 

(g) The PEPaoD of Later Adolescence, extend- 
ing from about the nineteenth to the twenty-third 
birthday, may well be called the Age of Decision. 

Physical Characteristics are a slight growth, but a 
large increase in firmness of flesh, and in strength of 
muscles and nerves, resulting in greater power of en- 
durance. This is seen in increased general activity, a 
larger participation in athletic games and exercises. 

Mental Characteristics are increased intellectual 
power, and a clearer mental vision; the banishment of 
day dreams, and the rise of practical ideals and work- 
able plans for the future. It is the age of final decision 
in business or profession, in social, domestic, and polit- 
ical relations. The fulness of mentality is shown in a 



28 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

realization of the reality of truth, expressed in positive 
religion, or a sense of the uncertainty of truth, ex- 
pressed in religious doubt or scepticism. 

Emotional Characteristics. — The aesthetic emotions 
become influential in conduct and career. The new in- 
terest in nature, art, poetry, or music, strengthen 
healthy desires and high ideals. The emotions gener- 
ally are less impulsive, but not less strong than in the 
preceding period. Where reason dominates they are 
well under control ; if the will has been undermined by 
sensual indulgence the prominent trait is recklessness. 
It is the age of final surrender to virtue, civic interest 
and good works, or to vice and crime. 

Social Characteristics. — This period marks the high 
tide of social life. The healthy man does not want to 
be alone. The club, the political caucus, the athletic 
team, the parish gathering, all appeal to him. He likes 
to work, play, study with others. Social environment 
becomes a powerful factor for good or evil; it shapes 
his career, and his character. We have now to deal with 
men and women. We must appeal to reason, we must 
help them to make life truly worth living. 

Natural Interests are those which find their basis in 
what the young man believes to be "worth while." He 
may be interested in the realities of religion or in the 
reality of money-making and political power; or in the 
reality of animal gratification. He either cordially 
hates shams, or believing that all life is a sham he lives 
the life of the hypocrite, or the criminal. 

A Summary, and a Caution. — It will help us to fix 
this outline of Child Nature in our minds if we recall 
its divisions : 
Babyhood, the first three years — the Age of Instinct. 



CHILD NATURE. 29 

Early Childhood, from 3 to 6 — the Age of Impulse. 
Middle Childhood, from 6 to 9— The Age of Imitation. 
Later Childhood, from 9 to 12— The Age of Habit. 
Early Adolescence, from 12 to 16 — the Age of Moral 

Crisis. 
Middle Adolescence, from 16 to 19 — the Age of Ko- 

mance and Ideality. 
Later Adolescence, from 19 to 23 — the Age of Decision. 

The key words given to each age will prove helpful if 
we remember that they are inclusive, not exclusive 
terms ; also that each age has many characteristics, some 
nearly or quite as important as the one named, which is 
given because of its relation to religious education. 
Then we must remember that the limits of these periods 
are not hard and fast lines. Climatic conditions, social 
and individual surroundings, each and all must be taken 
into account. 

At the best, what has been written must be consid- 
ered a general statement of Child Nature. It can never 
take the place of a study of individuals. Its great value 
is that it gives us a general idea of the nature of child- 
hood at a given age and so helps us, first to study the 
specific group of children with which we have to deal, 
and secondly having gained a knowledge of this group, 
it prepares us to intelligently study each separate child 
in the group. The true end of child study is not to 
gain a knowledge of a science, nor a school, nor a class, 
but to gain a knowledge of the nature of each child, of 
each living soul committed to our care. It is our priv- 
ilege to know the priceless value of God's little ones; 
and the supreme importance of adapting our methods, 
of Sunday School organization, discipline, and instruc- 
tion, to the needs of the child, and so to turn our past 
failures into success. 



CHAPTER III. 
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION.. 

OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES. 
"Let all things be done decently, and in order." — St. Paul. 

Remember that to see clearly the end for which we 
are working will decide the means we "use, the methods 
we employ, the ideals which belittle or ennoble our 
efforts. In particular our conception of what the Sun- 
day School is, will decide its organization, administra- 
tion, discipline, selection of officers, course of study, 
qualifications of teachers, and methods of instruction. 

The first problem is that of organization. What is 
organization? It is placing persons in right relation 
for harmonious work. It is putting things in readiness 
for good administration. Lack of organization means 
confusion, friction, misunderstanding, or strife. Every 
teacher knows that it is impossible to teach in the midst 
of disorder, but all do not realize that disorder and con- 
fusion are the natural results of poor organization, poor 
administration, or both. Again, good organization 
helps the pupil as much as the teacher. It arranges 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 31 

studies, and classes to fit the actual needs of the chil- 
dren. It provides for the isolation of classes, the adap- 
tation of grading and promotion to the actual condition 
of the children, and so make possible a harmonious 
and helpful administration. 

Organization is not an external arrangement tagged 
onto a school; it is simply that internal order, and 
classification, which fits the actual condition of the 
school and its needs of administration. Good organiza- 
tion is complete; it places a special responsibility for 
the discharge of each activity, upon some one person. 
Good organization is simple, the simpler the better; 
it creates no classification of pupils, no office nor officers 
except to meet actual necessities. 

The Pastor's Place and Duty. The canonical 
head of every Sunday School of the Church, is the 
Kector; his ordination vows and the parish organiza- 
tion both put him there. Under the Bishop, he alone 
is responsible for the School's organization, administra- 
tion, worship, discipline, officers, and teachers. He 
must decide what doctrines shall be taught, what text 
books shall be used, what methods of teaching shall be 
followed, and upon him comes the final decision of 
every question of authority, or discipline. And if his 
theological training did not teach him how to meet 
these responsibilities, then it is his duty by reading and 
study to fit himself to do so. All Sunday Schools fail 
in some particulars, but no school is a complete failure 
unless its head is a failure. 

It is not enough for the Kector to "start a Sunday 
School/' it must have his constant prayers, and personal 
attention. He must, if possible, be in the school at 
every session, not as a visitor, but as its spiritual head, 
the guide and counsellor of all his assistants. No other 
pastoral work will give so abundant a spiritual harvest. 



32 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

The Organization of the School is the duty of 
the Kector, but if he is wise he will call to his aid a 
Churchman who has had experience either in public or 
private schools. If the one called in is to become the 
Kector's chief assistant, so much the better. If the task 
be the common one of re-organizing a disorderly school, 
professional advice is all the more desirable; for 
changes will need to be made slowly and with much 
tact. The average Church worker is afraid of any 
change from the old order. 

The first thing to be decided is the grading of the 
school. A small school should have few grades, a larger 
one no more than is necessary. If there are only twenty 
pupils there should be three classes, and each class 
would probably represent a different grade of instruc- 
tion. If there are two hundred pupils, while there must 
be many classes, there need not be more than one addi- 
tional department; but the classes would need to be 
graded in each department. 

The following plan, or some modification of it, is 
largely used by experienced workers. Good in itself, it 
has the additional advantage of being in harmony with 
the grading of the public schools. This makes it easier 
for the pupil to conform to it, and easier for the teacher 
to instruct the child in such special spiritual truths as 
may be needed to counteract the materialistic tenden- 
cies of secular instruction. 

I. Kindergarten Department : — Early Childhood, 
ages from 3 to 6. 
Grades. — One to three, as required by the size of 
the school. 

Primary Department : — Middle Childhood, ages 
6 to 9. 
Grades. — One to three as the size of the depart- 
ment demands. 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 33 

In schools of not over 150 pupils (and this means 
three-fourths of the Sunday Schools of the Church), 
these two departments may well be consolidated and 
treated as one. Each year of childhood being given its 
own class, and its own grade of instruction. 

II. Main School Department : — Ages 9 to 15. 

Grades. — Three or more in a school of 60 to 80 
pupils. The grades may be named First, 
Second, Third, etc., and each grade should 
cover one or more years of instruction. 

III. Senior, or Bible Class Department : — Ages 

15 to 18. 
Grades. — One to three, according to the size of 
the school. 

IV. The Adult Department should include advanced 

Bible Classes, Normal Classes for the training of 
teachers, and the classes of what is often called 
The Home Department. 

These four departments should be sufficient for any 
school under 400 scholars. They should be found in 
every large school, and are needed in small ones. 

The Lay Superintendent. — The Eector is some- 
times absent from the city, and as he ought to be re- 
lieved from the business side of the School, an Assistant 
Superintendent is often needed. He should be appoint- 
ed by the Eector, whose helper he is to be. The con- 
gregational idea of a Superintendent elected by the 
teachers has no place in the Church. Its practise often 
results in a monstrosity, a double-headed organization 
in which the Superintendent and the Pastor are con- 
tending for the mastery. 

The following words (from Bishop Paret) are to 



34 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the point : "There can be few if any greater helps than 
a capable, efficient, and loyal Superintendent. But to 
be such, a man must be really the Pastors helper and 
not his substitute ; not to come between the children and 
their Pastor. ... I have had superintendents ap- 
peal to me to keep their rectors from meddling with the 
Sunday School. One said to me: 'The Eector and I 
can't work together. He does not see that while the 
church and pulpit are his, the school is mine. I would 
be glad to see him there once a month, but he wants to 
come and say something every Sunday/ To which I 
answered, 'There is only one remedy. He is the Pastor 
of those children. God made him so. The Church 
enforces God's appointment and lays on him the re- 
sponsibility for their Christian teaching. If you can- 
not loyally and lovingly work in harmony with him, 
your plain duty is to withdraw/ " 

In most parishes the Superintendent is a layman, and 
it is best that it should be so. If he is (as he should 
be), a man of mature age, brought up in the Church, 
he will be a loyal helper. The turning over of the Sun- 
day School to a young clerical assistant is a mistake; 
unless he has received a special training for the work. 
He often becomes a substitute for the Eector, and helps 
to perpetuate the false idea that the Sector's other 
duties are more important than caring for the children. 
I know that this idea is an old, deeply rooted one ; that 
in fact it was once an apostolic idea, but have we for- 
gotten what the Apostles' Lord had to say about it? 
(St. Mark 10: 13). A young deacon cannot bring to 
the School the experience of a parish priest of mature 
years, or of a godly lajonan of like age. Moreover, the 
officering of a Sunday School by ministers and women 
produces a bad effect upon the older boys of the School. 
The Eector had far better give some of his routine work 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 35 

to the clerical assistant, and the superintendentship to 
an experienced layman. Or, if he must have a young 
clerical assistant, then let the Eector appoint an ex- 
perienced layman to work with him, both for the young 
man's sake and the School's sake. 

(a) The Qualifications of a Superintendent should 
be of the highest order possible. He stands before the 
school, and particularly before the boys, as the model 
of all that a Christian gentleman should be. First, he 
should be a man w T ho loves God and little children. 
These are the two virtues from which may grow all 
others. He is to take the business end of the work; it 
is wise to select for the place a successful business man. 
He is to take the pedagogical side of the work, there- 
fore, a devout public school superintendent or teacher, 
would make an ideal assistant. If the Eector is not 
himself qualified to conduct a training class for teach- 
ers, which is always needed, then such a helper is still 
most desirable. 

The Superintendent should be a cheerful man, with 
a bright eye and warm hand for his pupils, and fellow 
workers. He should be hopeful, more hopeful when it 
storms than when the sun shines and the seats are full. 
He should be a wide-awake man, always on the look- 
out to help his teachers and improve the School. A 
sympathetic and patient man, for there is no School 
without imperfections, faults, and difficulties. It took 
Moses forty years to lead the Children of Israel a six 
weeks' journey; and there are some Schools almost as 
slow, and just as determined to go the way their fathers 
went. 

In small parishes and missions the selection is often 
a difficult matter. But under all circumstances the 
Superintendent should be the very best man obtainable. 



36 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

He certainly should be a man of excellent character ; an 
educated man. i.e., measured by the intelligence of the 
community. He should be a "devout man and one who 
feared God." Does that mean that he must be a com- 
municant of the Church? Not necessarily; but cer- 
tainly if he, like Cornelius, is devout and God-fearing, 
he would be a baptized man and a regular worshipper. 
Other things being equal, we should select a communi- 
cant, but to appoint a man solely because he is a com- 
municant is a grave mistake-. I have known such, dear, 
good, pious souls, who knew as much about children and 
how to administer a School as they did about the nature 
of the man in the moon. And the Sunday School? 
Well, it never was a School, and during the session it 
didn't seem to be Sunday. 

As between a man who had no qualification except 
that of being a communicant; and another, a baptized 
member of the Church, with good qualifications, there 
should be no hesitation. The unconfirmed man will 
himself feel that the children ought to have a com- 
municant to lead them, and, if he consents to serve, he 
will soon ask to be confirmed. In mission stations in 
the South and West, the problem is often a most diffi- 
cult one. There is no male communicant in the mis- 
sion, or the few who are there, are unqualified for the 
office ; among the worshippers there is no man fitted for 
the place ; what is to be done ? The mission would not 
exist if there were not godly women there ; and the most 
competent and tactful one should be called to the office. 
Devoted women in the West and South are, by their 
Bishops, sometimes appointed lay readers in charge, not 
of the School alone, but of the whole Mission. 

If the Rector is his own superintendent, he should 
see to it that the qualifications and Sunday School vir- 
tues which he knows a good lay superintendent should 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 37 

have, are possessed, or at least prayed for and struggled 
after, by himself. And it would sometimes be spiritu- 
ally helpful for us to make out a list of the lay excel- 
lences we desire, and pin them up in our own place of 
private devotion. 

(b) How to Obtain a Superintendent is often made 
more difficult than is necessary. The way not to do it 
is to make an appeal from the chancel. It is saying 
publicly that the Sunday School must have somebody 
and the place is open to anybody. No man of real 
worth can be secured in that way. He says to himself : 
"The Rector knows the men of the congregation who 
are qualified for the place. If he thought I was fitted 
for it, he would ask me personally." 

The true Parish Priest knows his flock. He knows 
who is fitted for one of the highest and most sacred 
places which a layman may occupy. He must privately 
seek out his man. He must aim high. The best man 
in the whole parish, and the whole city is the one 
needed. He ought not to be afraid to seek him face to 
face. St. Ann^s, Brooklyn, NT. Y., had for ten years a 
superintendent that was elected Mayor of that city, 
Mayor of New York City, and President of Columbia 
University. The layman who has been superintendent 
of Holy Apostles', Philadelphia, for over thirty-seven 
years, is one of the most prominent men of his own city, 
of his own state, and is in the highest councils of the 
Church. I do not know of a great and successful Sun- 
day School in the United States that has not a great 
man at the head of it. If the foremost layman of all 
England, Mr. Gladstone, counted it a privilege to be a 
teacher of the Bible, and if the foremost judge in Amer- 
ica, Chief Justice Brewer, gladly accepted the office of 
a Bible Class teacher, surely the best men in our par- 



38 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

ishes will earnestly listen to an invitation to work for 
God if we properly present it. 

I know a clergyman in a small parish who went to 
the best man in his congregation, and one of the fore- 
most business men in the city. He told him of the work 
the Sunday School was doing for God, the greatest work 
in the parish; and then asked him to be its superin- 
tendent; not to help the Eector or the parish, but for 
the sake of Christ's "little ones." The listener was 
touched and softened. He felt it would be an honor to 
take the office, and said as much. He could not take it, 
the Eector was satisfied he could not ; but from that day 
he had a large interest in the School and became more 
earnest in its support. The Eector went to the next 
best parishioner, a railroad man, and put the case to 
him in the same way, and it was received in the same 
spirit. The Eector did not get a superintendent, but 
the Sunday School did secure a warm friend, who, a few 
weeks later, entered it as the teacher of a class of large 
boys. The Eector went to a third man, a city official. 
Again the case was presented as God's work, not man's. 
The greatness of the work was admitted at once by the 
layman : it was simply a question of his own fitness for 
so holy a trust. His Sector's confidence in him decided 
that. He accepted the office, and filled it acceptably for 
years, until he removed from the city. By making a 
personal appeal for Christ (not for the Eector), that 
Sunday School gained a superintendent, a teacher, and 
a warm friend and supporter. 

(c) How to Sustain the Superintendent is summed 
up in a few words. If the Eector counts him worthy of 
the office, then he is worthy of being trusted in the 
office. Trust him, and let him Jcnoto that you trust him, 
and make him feel that you are sustaining him. Help 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 39 

him to understand clearly just what you expect him to 
accomplish and then allow him to work it out in his 
own way. He can do his best work, not in your way, or 
my way, but in the way God made him. Always uphold 
him before the School. But what if his action is 
wrong? Uphold his authority as superintendent, even 
if you cannot uphold his particular action. If he needs 
to be criticised, do it privately, and do it kindly, re- 
membering that mistakes are common to all of us. If, 
however, the wrong action is likely to hurt the School 
or any soul in it, he should be privately made to see that 
it is his duty to use his oivn authority to reverse his 
action. 

If the Eector holds the Superintendent responsible 
for the welfare of the School, he must have full charge 
of the School and of all the details of its work. His 
rights should be as large as his duties. If he be fitted 
for the place, he will seek to understand its needs better 
than any one else. Therefore in all temporal matters 
he should have full freedom of action and a loyal sup- 
port. Loyalty must be mutual. The Eector who ex- 
pects it, must give it; this begets confidence, and har- 
mony of action. The Eector should aid him not sim- 
ply to do, but to be. Bishop Huntington's lecture on 
"Unconscious Tuition" is a most helpful gift for a new 
superintendent, or a new teacher. 

An Assistant Superintendent is necessary in 
large schools. Each department must have an execu- 
tive who is, in fact, if not in name, an assistant to the 
Superintendent. It is the duty of the head of the Main 
School to visit each department, become acquainted 
with its teachers, and keep in touch with its work. Yet 
the Main School must not be left without an admin- 
istrator. Even if there is no need of discipline, there 



40 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

are questions to be answered, and visitors to be met 
and welcomed. In some large schools an assistant is 
always at the main entrance to conduct persons to the 
visitors' seats, and such courtesy always wins friends, 
or pupils, and not infrequently, good workers for the 
School. 

A Chorister is needed in every School and should 
be a man, if he can be had. He should be selected by 
the Eector, and appointed by the Superintendent. 
Children love to sing, and will sing well if they have a 
good leader. The organist should give his whole atten- 
tion to the organ. The chorister should face the chil- 
dren and give them his whole heart, voice, and enthu- 
siam. He should be a man of excellent character, 
prompt, and a good musician; one who loves children, 
and loves to sing. But his chief interest is not in his 
own singing, but in the singing of every member of the 
School. Where a chorister (man or woman) cannot be 
obtained, the organist should select a few of the best 
singers among the older children and drill them to lead 
the school. Children are full of music, there must be 
some way provided to let it out devotionally. 

The Secretary and Treasurer. These offices may 
be filled by one man, or two, as the work demands. He 
is to be selected by the Eector and appointed by the 
Superintendent. Here is a place for unconfirmed 
workers, if need be. A prompt, reliable, accurate secre- 
tary who understands his duties is a most important offi- 
cer. His book (a card catalogue is better for large 
schools), should contain a record of everything of im- 
portance done in the School, the name and residence of 
every scholar and teacher, the name and membership of 
every class, the date when each pupil entered the class, 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 41 

and when he left it, the record of his attendance, les- 
sons, and deportment, should all be found in the Secre- 
tary's book. His is the official record of the School, and 
the class records must give all the facts he needs. The 
Secretary should be a quiet man, who plans to get his 
record without disturbing the School. Nothing is more 
absurd than wasting ten minutes of the too short lesson 
period, to "call the roll." This, and all other class 
records should be made silently by each teacher and 
handed to the Secretary. It is always helpful to read 
to the School, after the lessons, a summary of the Sec- 
retary's report for the day, and for the preceding Sun- 
day, for the whole month, and for the corresponding 
month a year ago. Children like to see the School grow, 
and can be stimulated to help it grow. A large "attend- 
ance thermometer," which indicates the number pres- 
ent by means of movable black and white tapes, attracts 
the children's attention, and excites their interest in 
keeping up the regular attendance. 

The Treasurer of the School is really an assistant 
to the Church Treasurer, who is responsible for all the 
funds of the Parish. The Sunday School Treasurer 
may work independently, but should make an annual 
report to the Treasurer of the Parish. In a properly 
organized parish the Sunday School expenses are a part 
of the parochial expenses. 

The Librarian also should be a man of experience, 
of course a prompt and reliable man, if possible one who 
is acquainted with children and knows their needs. 
The true office of a library is not to entertain or amuse. 
If rightly formed, it is an educational factor in the work 
of the School. A good librarian will know the contents 
of the library, the needs of the child, and will help to 



42 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

get the right book into the right hands. If the School 
is large enough to require an assistant, then he should 
be given certain definite classes, that he may become 
acquainted with the children and their needs. The 
Librarian must remember that he is the head of a de- 
partment in the Church of God where immortal souls 
are being trained to lead Christ-like lives. 

The frequent practice in small schools of filling the 
offices just named with the larger boys of the Sunday 
School, is a grave mistake. It is a wrong to the boy, 
and to the School. It is often done to hold a restless 
boy. I have pointed out a better way (page 58). This 
method increases the disease it seeks to cure. Every other 
restless boy sees before him one who has left his class; 
why should not he do the same ? The School needs men 
of experience, needs them for the sake of the work, and 
for the influence of their manly presence. If a man 
cannot be had, a woman can; the boy is not a necessity. 

The Unit in Sunday School Administration, 
which shall it be — the individual or the class? This 
is a much more important question than it may seem; 
it concerns the moral development of the child, and the 
discipline of the School. We put before the School 
incentives for regular attendance and better work. 
Shall rewards and honors be offered to the child, or the 
class ? It is almost impossible to make this an individ- 
ual matter without making it an appeal to selfishness; 
one of the chief things we want to banish from the 
child's life. For this reason it is always better to make 
the class, not the individual, the unit; and to em- 
phasize the class unity in every way possible. The 
teacher must deal with the individual, the Superintend- 
ent on the platform should address the class. 

It is a mistake to call classes by numbers; that is 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 43 

the way convicts are designated. It is unwise to call 
them by the names of their teachers; that is Congrega- 
tionalism; they do not belong to their teachers, but to 
the Church of God. To name the classes after the 
saints mentioned in the Prayer Book, or after the great 
missionaries of the Church, is to emphasize what our 
teaching should emphasize. In public catechising, ques- 
tions should be addressed to the class ; at special services 
the offerings should be class offerings; and honors and 
rewards should be given to the class. Teachers can 
strengthen the corporate life of the class by quarterly 
reunions of a social character ; and in the upper grades, 
the Eector can do the same on the spiritual side, by 
special class-Communions. 

It is encouraging to see how quickly children will 
respond to the unselfish method. I recall the intense 
earnestness with which a little maid said : "Bessie Blank 
has been absent two Sundays. Helen and I have called 
on her twice to get her to be regular. She is spoiling 
the class record; what can we do?" On another occa- 
sion, before the Rector placed a new pupil in an honor 
class, he urged him to live up to the class standard. 
The teacher met him with, "Oh, yes, glad to have him, 
but we are the Banner Class, and he must be present 
every Sunday." And after the session was over, the 
Rector saw the new pupil in the hands of three members 
of the class, who were evidently impressing upon him 
the responsibility of his new position. But the best 
part of all this is that it helps to sink individual selfish- 
ness, and to cultivate individual effort first for the sake 
of the class, then for the School, and later for the 
Church of God. 



CHAPTER IV. 
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 

TEACHERS, CLASSES, AND PUPILS. 
"Let all things be done decently, and in order" — St. Paul. 

How to obtain Teachers qualified to instruct 
immortal souls is a most difficult problem. Some per- 
sons think it strange that such should be the case; but 
it would be far more strange if efficient teachers were 
plentiful. If there were no medical, engineering, nor 
law schools, would we be surprised to find that physi- 
cians, engineers, and lawyers were not to be found when 
wanted ? If there were no normal schools, would we be 
astonished that public school boards were unable to 
find qualified teachers? The simple fact is that we 
make no provision for educating our teachers, and have 
no right to expect to have them. 

Is it too much to expect that the American Church 
will some day establish National Normal Courses for 
Sunday School teachers, with regular examinations and 
diplomas for graduates? Such courses are provided 
by the English Church, and so successful are they in 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 45 

stimulating the older pupils to Bible study and peda- 
gogical preparation, that a parliamentary return showed 
that out of every one hundred teachers in the National 
Schools, eighty were from the Sunday Schools of the 
Church. It is, however, most encouraging to know 
that not a few American dioceses have begun some sys- 
tem of teacher-training. 

One of our strong Sunday School dioceses is New 
York. Its Commission lately made an effort to ascer- 
tain the actual condition of its Schools. Here are a few 
of the returns from the parishes : Three per cent, had 
no School; an average of only two male teachers for 
each School ; over one-half the Schools were not graded ; 
twenty-nine different text books and systems of instruc- 
tion were in use. To the request: "Name the three 
chief difficulties in the way of efficient work." the an- 
swer of over half the parishes was : "Lack of competent 
and faithful teachers." If this was the condition in 
the Sunday Schools of one of our strong diooeses, what 
must it be in our weaker ones ? 

. The above, and other equally remarkable answers, 
prompted the same Commission to make a later effort to 
discover what was being done by the parishes for the 
training of teachers. The returns showed that over one- 
third had no method whatsoever; that about the same 
number had teachers' meetings, fairly well attended, 
but many others had abandoned all effort for "lack of 
interest"; not a single parish reported a teachers' 
normal class. To the question: "What standard of 
teacher is desired?" over one-fourth answered, "A cer- 
tificated teacher"; about the same number would be 
satisfied with one who had "the gift of teaching" ; while 
one-fifth made "spiritual gifts" the measure. To the 
question: "What standard are you obliged to accept?" 
came the reply of one-half of the parishes, "Any we can 



46 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

get with average knowledge, and an average realization 
of the spiritual importance of the work." It is not 
surprising to learn that over one-fifth also reported that 
during the past three years the standard of teaching 
had fallen. The surprising thing is that one-third were 
able to report improvement in numbers, morale, and 
power over the children. 

The Sunday School teacher is an officer of the 
Church, an assistant to the Eector. The decision of 
who may and who may not teach must rest with him, 
for he is responsible to God for the instruction given to 
each "member of Christ." If he is wise he will consult 
the superintendent and afterwards ask him to make the 
appointment. A competent parish priest never appeals 
for teachers from the chancel. If the parish is large, 
the chief officers of the Sunday School will help him to 
select a proper person; if it is small, he ought himself 
to know its members, ought to have in his private note- 
book a list of persons (found in his pastoral visiting 
and work), who are competent and willing to teach. To 
stand before a congregation and make an appeal, is to 
confess either that he is afraid to speak to a person 
individually, or that he is not acquainted with his con- 
gregation, or is too "tired" to do differently. The re- 
sult of such an appeal is usually a person with more 
zeal than knowledge. The seed came up quickly because 
there was no depth of earth. 

If a person, emotional, good-intentioned, incompe- 
tent, asks the Eector for a class, what is to be done? 
If he has his teachers' list in his pocket (as he should 
have), he has simply to add that person's name to his 
list, explain what he is doing, and thank the applicant 
for offering. If a teacher is likely to be needed, and he 
thinks the applicant may have the making of a good 
teacher, he can promise to ask her to act as a substitute. 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 47 

This will give her an opportunity to learn, and him to 
see, her qualifications for the place. The proper time to 
secure a teacher is before there is a vacancy. Not in- 
frequently a good -worker can promise to take a class 
weeks or months later, who could not accept the posi- 
tion at once. 

The Necessary Qualifications of a Teacher. 
(a) Character comes first. "The problem of the teach- 
er is the central problem of the Sunday School The 
first requisite is a rich, deep, spiritual life — a full-sized 
soul." Character must come first, for if this is not 
right, nothing can be right. The end of the teacher's 
instruction is character. Can a teacher impart what 
he does not possess? (See First Principles, page 6.) 
The teacher of spiritual mind and devout life, who 
realizes that she is shaping undying souls for happi- 
ness here and hereafter, who enters upon her work 
solemnfy, prayerfully, lovingly, this is the teacher we 
are looking for, the teacher we accept gladly, and thank- 
fully. 

(6) A Knowledge of Child Nature is the teach- 
er's second qualification. We place it second not be- 
cause it is more important than a knowledge of Holy 
Scripture (it cannot be that), but because it is equally 
important, and is so frequently absent that it needs 
to be emphasized. The office of the teacher is to bring 
God's Child and God's Word together, is to so lodge the 
Word in the heart of the child that he shall never lose 
it, or the light of its truth. JSTo understanding of the 
Bible can make up for ignorance of the child. We 
have already shown that it is impossible for anyone to 
be a successful workman who does not understand the 
material with which he works (see page 11) and cer- 
tainly the more precious and holy the material, the 



48 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

greater is the need that the workman should understand 
it, and know how to mould and shape it for the glory of 
God. 

(c) A Devotional Knowledge of Holy Scrip- 
ture is the next important qualification of the teacher. 
This is a need that, in a measure, is already realized by 
the teacher. Indeed the most frequent plea for being- 
excused from duty is, "I do not know the Bible well 
enough to teach." But the speaker usually means 
that he is not sufficiently acquainted with the facts 
of the Bible, its historical, geographical, and doc- 
trinal contents. Yet one might know all these and 
still be unfitted to teach. What is needed to-day, 
even more than an intellectual, is a devotional knowl- 
edge of the Bible. We need to know its inspired truth 
as the only foundation of creed and conduct, to 
realize its spiritual power to quicken prayer and 
praise, and its divine power to shape character and 
life. In brief, the teacher needs to understand the 
Bible from the view-point of the Prayer Book. The 
Bible records the life of God's people expressed in its 
various activities, the Prayer Book interprets the same 
inspired record from the view-point of devotion. 

(d) Ability to Teach. For the teacher to pos- 
sess a character that gives him a loving enthusiasm 
for his work, to know child-nature sufficiently to see 
the wonders of a growing soul, and to understand God's 
Word as the guide to a devout life, is not all that is 
needed. The teacher must possess also the ability to 
impart his knowledge. To make full use of other quali- 
fications, the teacher needs to be trained for his work. 
The untrained teacher is not permitted to teach in a 
public school; why should he do so in God's School? 
Is the Bible School less important than the Grammar 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 49 

School ? Are brains more priceless than souls ? Is the 
less competent teacher to be given the more important 
work ? The parish priest answers "Yes" to those ques- 
tions, with the unmistakable emphasis of deeds, when- 
ever he puts a class of redeemed souls into the hands of 
a well-meaning but incompetent teacher. 

In some respects the teacher's office is more impor- 
tant than the Superintendent's. The Pastor is the spir- 
itual head of the School. In the class the teacher is 
entrusted with the spiritual instruction. A poor teacher 
means a poor class; an undevout teacher, an undevout 
class; an unconfirmed teacher, an unconfirmed class; 
and so on through the whole sad list. The unconscious 
teaching of conduct, the instructive or destructive force 
of example, has a power beyond all words or doctrines. 
The personality of the teacher is the decisive factor in 
making the class what it should, or should not be. 

A diocesan Church Club, desiring to be informed 
of the actual teaching methods in Sunday School work, 
asked : "What qualifications are required of your teach- 
ers ?" Here are some of the answers received : "Thank- 
ful for any we can get"; "Take what we can get, few 
really competent"; "It is so difficult to get them that 
no test is made"; "Compelled to use whoever offers." 
Such answers are a pitiful revelation of the chief cause 
of Sunday School failures. They show plainly that the 
real ground for oft-heard sneers is not the Sunday 
School idea, nor its principles, but the defects of its 
administration. The above answers are confessions of 
pastoral indifference or incompetence. No thoroughly 
earnest parish priest is "compelled to use whoever 
offers." 

In saying this, I do not forget how difficult it is to 
procure teachers in small parishes and missions. I 
have worked in them myself. But certainly a bad 



50 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

teacher is worse than none, and a Christian teacher 
whose belief or conduct contradicts the Church's faith, 
or the Prayer Book's sacramental teaching, is worse than 
none. It is not a sin to chew tobacco, or gum, to be 
slovenly in manner, slack in dress, or given to slang; 
but these things, in the class, destroy the child's respect 
for the teacher; and, worse yet, the child's reverence for 
God's workman. 

It is praiseworthy for one to live a good, moral life, 
to be a sincere Baptist, or a devout Methodist; but to 
put a class of Church children into such hands is 
spiritually to bewilder them and endanger their faith. 
The only infidel woman I ever met, laid the foundation 
of her disbelief in the conflicting teaching of five or six 
denominational Sunday Schools. The sincere Baptist 
cannot help teaching, consciously or unconsciously, what 
he believes; the more upright the moralist teacher is, 
the more strongly his example says, "You do not need 
the Sacraments — morality is sufficient"; and the godly 
Methodist's enthusiastic teaching impresses the child 
with the idea that one religion is as good as another, 
and Confirmation is of no account. 

"But we must accept such persons as teachers, or go 
without a Sunday School." One can have a School 
without having classes. The teacher difficulty is great- 
est in the smallest parishes ; and it is in a small parish 
that the Pastor has the most time to train teachers, or 
to fit himself to be the sole instructor. Such a parish 
is not likely to have over sixty pupils, divided into two 
classes, at opposite ends of the church, one teacher and 
the Eector can do all the teaching. Two teachers and 
himself can instruct a graded school of eighty pupils; 
or, if necessarjr, he alone can teach and catechise the 
whole school. Though a better way would be to divide 
the pupils into two grades and teach them at different 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 51 

hours. If the Pastor has several missions and cannot 
do the work himself, he certainly could find one devout 
woman at each mission whom he can train to instruct 
the children in a body. 

The Influence of Age and Sex should be care- 
fully considered. The tendency is towards young teach- 
ers, they are the easiest to obtain. They want to teach 
before they know what, or how to teach. If they are 
not giddy, they are spiritually inexperienced, and there- 
fore unfitted to instruct others. The effect on the Sun- 
day School is also bad, as I know from sad experience. 
The children feel, what they cannot express, the shal- 
lowness of the instruction, and an atmosphere of un- 
reality soon pervades the whole school. The effect on 
the congregation is equally bad. When the leaders of 
the parish are not represented in its Sunday School, 
the congregation has no interest in it, and what is in- 
evitable, declines to support it. 

As a rule, the best instructors are mature women. 
But women must not be the only instructors, if we are 
going to hold the older boys. The present proportion, 
even in some of our best dioceses, of one man to four 
women, is not enough. True, women are easier to 
obtain, and usually are more spiritually-minded than 
men, but have they the power to create those ideals of 
manly Christianity, which a young boy must have if he 
is to be saved? The condition of most of our schools 
answers the question only too plainly. 

Yet, I know of schools in which there are more men 
than women on the roll of teachers, and there are also 
more boys than girls among the pupils. I know of one 
that has two wardens and seven vestrymen among its 
teachers; and that parish does not find it difficult to 
obtain other manly instructors, nor to hold its young 



52 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

men. Out of 112 recently presented for Confirmation, 
99 came from that Sunday School. One-half of all the 
communicants of the parish are in the School under 
instruction. There is one class of 150 persons which 
does not contain an unconfirmed member. The power 
of presence, the personal example of the teacher's 
Christian manhood is felt, and it holds the boys and 
it holds the young men for Christ. 

The Securing of Paid Teachers has been advo- 
cated as a method of obtaining properly qualified in- 
structors. The end is most desirable; the means has 
been tried, and found wanting. At the beginning of 
the Sunday School revival in the eighteenth century, 
the first teachers were paid, but the practice was soon 
discarded. The world-famous School of Stockport 
(England), which has trained 106,000 pupils and to- 
day has 5,000 on its rolls, began with paid helpers ; but 
as early as 1794, five-sixths of its teachers received no 
pay. In the United States, the Philadelphia Sunday 
School Society started in 1791 with paid teachers, but 
found the results unsatisfactory, and soon secured teach- 
ers who worked for love. To-day, the paid teachers 
are mainly in Jewish synagogues, and even there such 
payment is the exception, not the rule. 

The old question, "Who shall sing in the choir ?" is, 
in principle, the same as "Who shall teach in the Sun- 
day School ?" And, although it is far less vital to the 
spiritual welfare of the Church, the day has passed when 
a singer is hired for his voice, and nothing is said if he 
spends sermon-time in the nearest saloon. We have 
solved the choir question by putting a salaried man, 
musically and morally competent, at the head of the 
choir and have helped him to select from the congrega- 
tion fit persons to be trained to sing God's praise with 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 53 

heart and understanding. What we have already done 
in the choir we may do in the School by giving a salary 
to a competent Christian man to act as teacher-trainer, 
tinder the Eector. To go farther than this would not, 
I believe, be pedagogically expedient, or spiritually wise. 

Substitute Teachers. Xo organization is com- 
j^lete that does not provide for absent teachers. Ab- 
sences will occur — how are they to be filled? In the 
School that simply drifts along without competent ad- 
ministration, the usual way is to make a raid on the 
young woman's Bible class. This hurts the Bible class 
and the teacherless class also. It makes some members 
of the first discontented, and gives the second a teacher 
who is unprepared to teach. Another harmful way is to 
"consolidate" the teacherless class with one of its neigh- 
bors. This overloads a faithful teacher, hurts her 
work, and discourages both classes. And after a few 
such "consolidations," there are usually no pupils left 
to consolidate. 

The proper way is to provide for the emergency be- 
fore it occurs. The Eector in his pastoral work should 
be able to find persons who are fitted to teach, but 
whose domestic or other duties are such that they can- 
not teach regularly. Such persons will usually be will- 
ing to act as substitute teachers once or twice a month. 
The Superintendent should be furnished regularly with 
a list of such persons, and he should organize them 
under — 

A Pledge for Substitute Teachers. I hereby agree 
to act as a supplementary teacher in our Sunday School 

on the Sunday of each month, if needed, 

and to attend the Teachers' Meeting preceding that 



54 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Sunday; provided that I am not called upon to supply 
on any other Sunday than the one designated. 

(Sign, name, and address.) 



A Superintendent, with two or three qualified teach- 
ers waiting in the rear seats to take any class that may 
be teacherless, will not be troubled with discontented 
pupils, or classes dropping out of the School. 

Departments and Classes. The Kindergarten De- 
partment is the most important of all, and should have 
the best qualified teachers in the School. Why? For 
the same reason that infancy is the most important pe- 
riod in man's physical life. A mistake here may cripple 
the child, a serious mistake may end his life. So in 
the Kindergarten and Primary classes, unwise teaching 
may weaken, and false teaching may injure for life the 
faith of the child. In each room, if there be a class of 
twelve or more, there should be two teachers. One to 
maintain order, record the attendance, collect the offer- 
ing, preside at the organ, lead the singing, and to per- 
form the multitude of offices necessary among a large 
class, each healthy unit of which is a bit of perpetual 
motion. All this the assistant will do that the princi- 
pal may giver herself wholly to teaching. 

The Covenant (or Cradle) Roll, if the Eector has 
not planned otherwise, should be kept in this depart- 
ment. On the Eoll should be entered the name of every 
infant who is baptized in the parish or mission. He 
becomes a member of the School when he is received into 
the Congregation of Christ's Flock. He grows up with- 
out knowing a time when he did not belong to the 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 55 

Church and its School. Each child should be remem- 
bered with a card on his birthday, and at Christmas and 
Easter, and as soon as he is old enough not to disturb 
others, he should be brought to see the School of which 
he is already a member. 

The Promoting of Teachers with their classes, should 
it be allowed ? Within a department, yes ; from depart- 
ment to department, No. We cannot, however, have 
the hard and fast rules which regulate public school 
work. The pupils' love for the teacher, the teacher's 
personal influence over the child, is a large factor in 
the shaping of character. We should make the most 
of it. As a rule the Kindergarten teacher had better 
not follow her class into the Primary Department, yet 
the work of the two departments is so closely related 
that there are sometimes exceptions here that would 
not occur in other departments. A really good Kinder- 
garten, or Primary teacher is difficult to obtain, and 
ought not to be lost in the less difficult work of the Main 
School. 

But children object to leaving a good teacher. Cer- 
tainly, and they also object to other needful things. 
We should manage children, not consult them. Several 
weeks before the time for the promotion of a class to 
the Main School (when a separation is unavoidable), a 
teacher from that department should come into the 
primary room and assist in the instruction of the class 
to be promoted. It will be a help to the new teacher 
to study the methods to which the children are already 
attached. It will give the children time to become ac- 
quainted with their new teacher. But nothing should 
be said to the children until the Eector, or Superin- 
tendent comes in to promote the class. The children, 
doubtless had rather remain with their old teacher, but 



56 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

amid the strange surroundings of the Main School, 
their new teacher will seem like an old friend. 

The Primary Classes are entitled to have the very 
best of everything that is left after the lower classes 
have been provided for, and their surroundings should 
be equally bright and attractive. If there is more than 
one class then one of the teachers should be appointed 
the head of the department. If there are many classes 
the department should have a superintendent who is 
able to give her whole time to the work, and report to 
the Superintendent of the whole school. If there are 
three classes, they should be graded, and promotions 
should be after an examination. It would have to be 
oral, it ought to be very simple ; but the child should be 
made to feel that promotion is not a favor, but some- 
thing to be earned by good lessons. 

The Main School Department must be well graded, 
even if the grading of lower departments has been the 
most elastic possible. The fact is, a class is always graded 
or degraded ; there is no escape from it. If it be done by 
the authority of the Superintendent, the class is made 
an harmonious unit in the School's organization. If 
it be done by the teacher, it is usually an independent 
and irritating unit. If it be done by each child who 
brings a new pupil, the class becomes a children's party, 
and discipline is made impossible. Main School pupils 
who live for five days of the week in the atmosphere 
of a well-graded and well-disciplined public school are 
quick to note, and lose their respect for, an unorganized 
Sunday School ; and, before long, want to get out of it. 
Conditions that would not be tolerated in a secular 
school, certainly should not exist in one devoted to 
sacred studies. 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 57 

The worst of all grading is social grading. Clean- 
ness of person and dress may well have something to do 
with admitting a child into a class, but not richness of 
clothing. The greatest harm done by this wrong 
method is not to the School, or to the child of the poor, 
but to the child of the wealthy. The School should 
teach not the exclusiveness of riches, but the danger of 
them. The personality of the teacher is an important 
factor; and the stronger his personal influence the 
better; provided that he is perfectly loyal to the School. 
A class, however, does not belong to the teacher, but to 
the Church, While the teacher should do everything 
possible to attach the members of the class to himself, 
and to one another, it should be done in perfect subor- 
dination to the School, and used as a means of leading 
the pupils to their Saviour. 

What should be the size of a class? That depends 
upon place and teacher. Six to eight pupils is enough 
for a class seated in church pews. If the church or 
chapel has reversible seats, a teacher can instruct twelve 
to fourteen. In a separate room, properly seated, a good 
teacher may have from twenty to thirty. More than 
this makes individual instruction impossible; the class 
becomes a congregation. It should be remembered that 
a teacher is overloaded if she has one pupil more than 
she can keep occupied. Provision should also be made 
for examinations of some sort, and they should decide 
promotions. In this department, most of the children 
are old enough to do written, or note-book work. It 
should be required; and the examination of such work 
is a good test of thd child's fitness, or unfitness, for pro- 
motion; this is a fairer test than a frightened half- 
hours examination before the Superintendent. 

Xo class should be allowed to "drop out" of the 
School; and rarely (if ever) should it be consolidated 



58 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

with another class. Few things discourage a child more 
than lack of stability in class organization; and the 
"dropping out" of a class begins the "dropping out" of 
the School. If a class is small and weak, that is the 
best of reasons for the Eector, Superintendent, and 
teacher all working together, to build it up. It is easier 
to strengthen what exists than to create what does not 
exist. 

The Senior Department, next to the Kindergarten, 
is the most important one in the School. Its members 
are passing through the moral crisis period of life. It 
is the age of religious decision ; and if the school organ- 
ization is not strong enough to hold its pupils now, they 
are liable to drop out of School and Church forever. 
Class organization, grading, and work must be the best 
possible, that it may command the respect and confi- 
dence of those who, not yet men and women, are more 
sensitive than if they were older. If possible, the boys 
should have wide-awake, well-informed men for teach- 
ers; or an exceptionally good woman who understands 
boy-nature. In either case the work must be individual, 
not class work only, and must not be limited to the class 
hour, or to Sunday. 

Under no circumstances should the boy who feels 
that he is "too big for Sunday School," be allowed to 
drop out of his class. If the teacher is watchful he 
will see the beginning of the boy's restlessness, and will 
seek to counteract it by giving more of himself to the 
boy. If he feels that he is losing his hold upon the 
boy, he should immediately inform the Sector. A wise 
Pastor will at once privately speak to the boy of his 
rapid growth, and increased ability, state his intention 
of transferring him to a higher grade, or Bible Class 
for Young Men. This should be done even if the boy's 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 59 

mental attainments do not entitle him to promotion. 
Often the example of his new classmates will stimulate 
him to study and keep up with them. Under all cir- 
cumstances the boy must be kept in touch with God's 
Church ; the boy is of more value than the grading. 

Bible classes with members under twenty years, and 
holding their session during the School hour, are usually 
considered a part of this department. If possible there 
should be two such classes: one for young men, and 
another for young women. They are needed to hold 
young people who are growing restless in the regular 
classes. It is a great aid to have a separate room, or 
at least a curtained-off, or screened-off, part of the 
building. To have an independent class organization 
is also very helpful in holding the class together. See 
chapter X. 

The Adult Department is usually found in all large 
parishes. It should not be left out of one of average 
size. It is more of a parochial, than a school depart- 
ment. The children are not the only ones that greatly 
need instruction in Bible and Prayer Book; and the 
need is best supplied not from the distant pulpit, but 
from the face to face instruction of the Parish Priest 
or competent lay teacher. 

The Advanced Bible Class, with adult membership 
(not necessarily meeting on Sunday), usually has a sep- 
arate organization, which makes it a part of the parish 
rather than of the School. Its teacher should be the 
Parish Priest, or a well educated layman. If the church 
contains no good room (a dark or cold one will kill 
the class), the meetings had better be held at the rec- 
tory or in a private house. For methods of work, see 
chapter X. 



60 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

A Normal Class of some sort for the training of per- 
sons in Child Nature, the Bible, the Prayer Book, and 
the Art of Teaching, is necessary in every parish that 
has a Sunday School. And the parish without a School 
is already half dead, although it may not know it. The 
Normal Class may be very simple, and yet very helpful. 
Its faculty may consist of the pedagogically, as well as 
theologically educated Pastor alone, or with a teacher 
from the public schools as assistant. It may be organ- 
ized separately, or held in connection with the "teach- 
ers' meeting"; but in some way it must exist, and be 
thoroughly alive, if there is to be any good instruction 
in the School. See chapter XII. 

The Home Department is an organization that has 
been found helpful, and is one well adapted to meet 
conditions which exist in the congested quarters of a 
large city, and in the seemingly opposite conditions of 
an isolated missionary district. It is intended to reach 
and instruct those who are kept from Church and 
School by illness, domestic duties, or uncontrollable 
conditions of work. Its membership should never in- 
clude anyone who is able to attend the sessions of the 
School. It is not a substitute for, but an annex to, the 
School. Its success, or failure, depends mainly upon 
how it is organized and officered. 

It must have a head, who should work under, and re- 
port to the Eector. It must have a number of earnest, 
enthusiastic, undiscourageable visitors; for everything 
depends upon the workers. There must be men to help 
the "shut outs," by Sunday labor, as well as women to 
help the "shut ins," by sickness and other causes. There 
should be a quarterly conference of the workers with 
the Eector. The members study the Bible class lessons, 
or the Main School lessons. The Secretary sends the 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 61 

text book, lesson quarterly, or leaflet, as the ease may be, 
and the visitor, by frequent visiting, seeks to keep the 
home member in touch with the School and its studies. 
Other details of the organization and working of this 
department can be found in "The Home Department," 
by M. C. Hazard. 

Sunday School Visitors are needed to hunt up absent 
scholars. The best visitor in every case is the teacher 
of the absent pupil. But there are always some teachers 
who cannot command their time just when a visit is 
needed. Such an emergency should be provided for 
beforehand. The written name and residence of each 
absent pupil should be given to the Superintendent by 
the Secretary before the close of each session. The 
Superintendent sends a list of those the teachers cannot 
visit, to the chairman of the "Committee on Absent 
Pupils," and she distributes the names among the 
visitors. 

Such a committee may be formed by the Eector from 
the list of those persons who are "perfectly willing 
to help in any way except teaching." Another method 
is to have such a committee composed of members of the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew, or the Daughters of the 
King. Both of these bodies are organized for spiritual, 
not financial, work for the Kingdom, and this work is 
exactly in their line. Visitors should report to the 
Superintendent. But in cases of illness or other emer- 
gency, a report should also be made to the Sector. 

Teachers' Meetings, held regularly, are a necessity 
in every School that would have harmony in administra- 
tion, efficiency in instruction, and enthusiasm in work. 
This subject is too important for a few paragraphs, and 
chapter XII. is devoted to its consideration. Teachers' 



62 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Meetings can always be had if right methods are used. 
They are a part of every live school, they are not found 
in decaying ones. 

The Pupils. Who are they? First, they are the 
children of all parishioners. It is the Pastor's duty to 
see that the full name of every baptized child is on the 
Covenant Poll. It should go on at the Font, and 
should never be taken off except by the parents' request, 
and their solemn promise that their child shall regularly 
receive religious instruction at home; and also that he 
shall be regularly sent "to the Church at the time ap- 
pointed, and obediently to hear and to be ordered by the 
minister, until such time as he has learned all that is 
here (in the Catechism) appointed for him to learn/' 
See the rubrics after the Catechism. If there are 
children too young to come to School alone and there is 
no one to bring them, then the Superintendent should 
form, from the older girls of the School, a "Yoke-fellow 
Band," pledged to call for such little ones, bring them 
to School, and see them safely home again. 

But the children of all parishioners does not com- 
plete the roll of a School that lives up to its mission. It 
ought to include all children who are nobody's parish- 
ioners. To whom did Christ devote the most of His time 
— to members of the Jewish Church and their children 
in the Synagogue Sabbath Schools? Or was it to the 
outcast and neglected? No matter what the opinion 
of some parishioners may be, no priest or deacon is or- 
dained to minister to a few select souls. He is not 
called, or sent, to be the minister of the people in a cer- 
tain building. He is the Priest and Pastor of the 
Parish, and in many cases that means the whole city, 
or the whole township in which he is located. 

To reach the spiritually neglected children, an house 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 63 

to house visitation is necessary. The Hector should 
make a map of the parish, or city, dividing it into dis- 
tricts; each district should be assigned to two visitors. 
They should be provided with cards of invitation to 
both School and Church. This is good work for the 
Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and the Daughters of the 
King. Visitors should make a full record of their 
work and report to the Hector at stated times. Their 
work will add to his labors, but it will be a blessed addi- 
tion; for did not our Master come "to seek and to save 
that which was lost 7 * ? 

It is a serious mistake to allow children of other 
Sunday Schools to attend the School of the Church. 
It denies the definite end and purpose of our School, 
and contradicts before our children, the principles on 
which their instruction is founded. It also helps to 
undermine the character and faith of the child who is 
thus encouraged to attend several schools — usually for 
what he can get out of them. Such children, often un- 
baptized, have no thought of being confirmed, or of 
entering into the sacramental life of the Church. To 
keep them for the sake of numbers is to make the School 
a sham, and its officers the managers of "a Sunday 
show." 

In starting a School in a new field it is necessary, at 
first, to allow all children to attend who will; for only 
in this way can the baptized children of the Church be 
brought back to their home. But after a few months, 
the children (and their parents) should gently, but 
firmly, be made to see the injurious effect of conflicting 
instruction, and the necessity of their deciding which 
school they will attend. The morning hour is usually 
the best time for the School's session; but if necessary, 
such an hour should be selected as will keep out re- 



C4 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

peaters, and compel the undecided pupils to come to a 
decision. 

When a child seeks admission to the School, he 
should be sent to the Superintendent, who alone has 
authority to admit. Then the applicant is given a card 
addressed to his parents, saying that if they wish their 
child to attend the School, to fill up the blank on the 
other side. This is really a certificate from them, giv- 
ing the child's full name, date of birth, and baptism ( ?). 
It also requires a promise that they will encourage the 
child to attend regularly, to study his lessons, and to 
obey all the rules of the School. In this way the co- 
operation of the parents is in some measure secured. 
Before a child is admitted he ought also to be sufficiently 
examined by the Superintendent, to ascertain to what 
grade he belongs. As a rule we make entering the 
School too easy and too cheap. In fact, children are 
frequently given the idea that they are conferring a 
favor upon the School by their attendance; this idea 
makes their presence worthless to themselves, and harm- 
ful to the School. 

We do want all the children possible, but it must be 
on the Church's condition, not on the child's. Too 
often parents who would whip their children for losing 
a single dime, allow them to do as they please with 
Christ. The children drift from School to School to 
their own great hurt. And sometimes, for lack of 
proper organization, a teacher permits a child to join 
a class, or leave it, when he pleases. No child should 
be allowed to enter a class until placed there by the 
Superintendent. No child should be admitted a "mem- 
ber" of the class until he has been present three or four 
consecutive Sundays. Meantime he should be fully 
informed of the "duties" of a class member. A class 
that is easy to enter, is easy to drop out of. Each new 



ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION. 65 

scholar (as well as his parents) should be given a card 
to sign, such as : 

I (Charles Roe) am a member of Trinity Church 
Sunday School, Charleston; in (St. John's) Class, 
taught by (Mrs. E. Doe). I must show my loyalty to 
my Sunday School by regular and prompt attendance 
every Sunday; by heartiness in worship; by having 
studied my lesson during the week ; by respectful atten- 
tion to my teacher ; by bringing an offering every Sun- 
day; by informing my teacher of the illness of any of 
my classmates; and by inviting my friends and play- 
mates, who do not attend Sunday School, to come 
with me. Dated, 190. . 

[Pin up in sight.'] 

You may think this carefulness is a piece of "red- 
tape." So it is; but remember, red tape is used for 
tying things together, and if with it we have tied a 
restless soul to the Church of God, could we have put 
tape to better use ? In these days of parental indiffer- 
ence to religion and children's independence, I have 
known cases where a child has attended a School for 
months, while his parents did not know where he went, 
and the child himself could not tell the name of the 
Church, nor of his teacher. Were the parents and the 
child the only ones to blame ? 

A Concluding Word. We believe in organization, 
but we must not forget that good organization is a nat- 
ural growth from within to meet the actual needs of 
administration. Let it grow, simply, and naturally. 
Do not try to force things. I know a well-intentioned 
young worker who took a decaying school and reorgan- 
ized it; did it so effectually that it resembled the 
famous military company, which was so completely 



66 THE CHURCHMAN'S- MANUAL OF METHODS. 

officered that there was only one private left. It is 
much easier to make mistakes than to unmake them. 
Go slow. Be sure you are going God's right way, before 
you go at all. 



CHAPTER V. 
ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 

"God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." — St. Paul. 

Discipline is not correction, but government. In 
its relation to the School it is that method of adminis- 
tration which produces and sustains order. It provides 
for doing the right thing, at the right time, in the 
right way, by the right person. In its relation to the 
individual, discipline is training a child to regulate his 
life by principle, his conduct by law or rule. The first 
law of Divine Government is order. It must be the 
first law of the School, or there will be confusion and 
tumult. Disorder in the School, disorder in the class, 
disorder in the mind of the teacher, and of the child — 
they all go together, and each and every one of them 
prepares for failure. "It is my duty to teach, not to 
keep order/' But no teaching is possible in the midst 
of disorder. You may go over the lesson, you may re- 
cite your piece, but if you did this before a lot of happy 
grasshoppers, would you call it teaching? 

The Difficulties of the Situation are too many 
already to allow one more when, like disorder, it can 



6$ THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

be cured. Sunday comes but once a week. We have 
the children for one session, the secular teacher has ten. 
We have (perhaps) an half -hour a week for instruction, 
he has ten or twelve half -hours a day, and fifty to sixty 
a week. In other words, the secular teacher has over 
fifty times the opportunity for instruction that we have. 
A year in the Sunday School amounts to about eight 
days in the secular school. Yet some people think it 
strange that we accomplish so little ! If they were 
wiser, they would be surprised that we accomplish so 
much. 

Conditions of Order in the School. The Rec- 
tors Part stands first. Discipline begins at the 
fountain-head or not at all. It never flows up hill, it 
is never better at the bottom than at the top. The 
Eector's work is spiritual; the order for which he is 
responsible is spiritual order. Words may explain rev- 
erence, they cannot teach it. The Eector must lead the 
worship of the School as often as possible. His example 
is the best instruction in devotion. It is far more force- 
ful in the School than in the Church, the children are 
much quicker to see, and to imitate. 

The Superintendent's Part is a constant factor, and 
he does more to decide the order of the School than any 
other person. A prominent worker says: "There is 
more disorder on the part of the average officer of the 
Bible School than there is on the part of the average 
pupil." Is that true? I know that one noisy officer, 
one hurrying, halloaing, bell-banging superintendent 
will certainly make a restless, noisy, book-banging 
School. 

Self-mastery is the first duty. The officer who does 
not control himself cannot control others. Good order 
is the result of good plans. The lesson should be pre- 



ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 69 

pared, and the work for the day should be planned be- 
fore the Superintendent leaves home. He should be 
the first to arrive at the School. Sextons are not per- 
fect. Much depends on the condition of the building. 
Order can be frozen out, smoked out, or baked out. 
Then, it makes early teachers, to find the Superintend- 
ent at the door with a cheery greeting. The early pupils 
also can be recognized and greeted, and the early and 
prepared Superintendent wastes no time hunting up 
lessons, or tunes, or helpers. He is not rushing around 
and thereby exciting disorder. 

The orderly officer begins on time, and ends on time, 
exactly on time, knowing that nobody else will be on 
time if he is not. "But the organist has not arrived," 
or "The chorister is absent." Well, what of it ? Shall 
we allow one disorderly man to ruin the order of fifty 
or three hundred pupils? When the tardy officer ar- 
rives and finds the School in session, he will need no 
other rebuke. Begin on time. Not by banging the 
bell, or crying, "Silence !" If the School does not im- 
mediately obey the first tap of the bell, and you have 
been superintendent for two months, blame yourself, 
not the School. The worst thing to do is to keep bang- 
ing the bell, or to tell the organist to turn on the full 
organ. I heard of an officer who banged his bell 
eighteen times; but his noise did not produce silence; 
it never does. 

If the first bell-tap is not obeyed, wait; and continue 
to wait until it is obeyed. The School will soon stop 
to see why you are silent. If one class fails to come to 
order, say quietly, "We are waiting for St. James' 
Class." If one pupil is a disturber, "Charley, we are 
waiting for you," will bring him into line. In a very 
exceptional case it may be necessary to add: "The 
School will not open until Charles Blank comes to 



70 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

order." No boy can stand out with every eye in the 
room fixed upon him. It will do no harm to close that 
session five minutes late, announcing to the School your 
regret, and reminding them that the School was robbed 
of five minutes at its opening. 

A Sunday School Time Table is as necessary as a 
railroad time table. It may be a simple one, but it must 
be lived up to. Here is one for a morning session, 
where the Church service begins at 10 :30 : 

9:15 Opening Service. (Late comers stopped.) 

9:25 The Lessons begin. (No interruptions.) 

9:55 Warning bell. (Five minutes to finish.) 

10 :00 Catechising, or Keview, by Eector or Supt. 

10:10 Closing Service, and School Notices. 

10 :15 Distribution of books and papers. 

10:20 Orderly dismissal. 

If the School is held in the church, it should begin 
at 9:00 and may close at 10:10, the extra five minutes 
being added to the lesson. If the session is held in the 
afternoon, five minutes may well be added to the sing- 
ing, both in the opening and closing worship, and ten 
minutes to the instruction. This gives a morning ses- 
sion of one hour and five minutes, or an afternoon ses- 
sion of one hour and twenty-five minutes. Too long? 
Yes, for the poor teacher, and too short for the good 
one. 

The worship of the School must not be disturbed by 
tardy pupils or teachers. If there is a waiting-room, 
lock the school room door when the opening hymn be- 
gins. This, however, should not be done until teachers 
and Superintendent have talked it over, and agreed to 
it. But if the back seats of the church are the only 



i 



ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 71 

comfortable waiting room, the rule that late comers 
are to stay there until the worship is over, should be 
strictly enforced. 

No teacher, no School officer, no Superintendent, 
Parish Priest, or distinguished visitor should interrupt 
a teacher in the midst of her lesson, except in case of 
fire, or like calamity. The fact that the interrupter 
is on Church business does not count; he is out of order 
himself, and is creating disorder in the School. If the 
Superintendent or Eector wishes to conduct a recitation, 
he has a perfect right to do so. But he has no right to 
interrupt the lesson, destroy the pupil's attention, and 
upset the teacher, in order to ask a question that ought 
to be asked before or after school. If a teacher inter- 
rupted the Superintendent to ask about next Sunday's 
lesson, while he was catechising the School, or the 
Treasurer interrupted the Eector in the midst of his 
extemporaneous sermon, to ask if he should buy another 
load of wood, what w^ould such conduct be called? 
Well, the rights of a faithful teacher are equally entitled 
to respect. 

The School should close as orderly as it opens. The 
Superintendent should be the last to leave. He should 
always be approachable. Some teacher, or pupil may 
want to speak to him about his class. Perhaps there 
is discouragement, and a desire to "drop out." A little 
aid, or sympathy may save a good worker or a good pu- 
pil. When the last teacher has been seen, the Superin- 
tendent may depart, but his work is not done until he 
has reviewed the day's labors, and asked himself, 
"Wherein did I fail, where was I weak, how can I plan 
to make next Sunday's work better ?" 

Other Officers' Part is second only to that of the 
Superintendent. They cannot do their work without 



72 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

helping or hurting the discipline. The Secretary must 
plan to get his class reports silently. The teacher's 
book or card should be waiting for him at the end of the 
class pew, before the beginning of the lesson. The 
Librarian must plan to have the pupils return their 
books as they enter the building. The books to be de- 
livered should be ready, each class by itself, to be handed 
to the teacher at the close of the session. All this can be 
and must be done quietly. 

The Teacher's Part in securing order is a large one. 
It begins with self-mastery, and in subordinating his 
wishes, himself, and his class to the welfare of the 
School. It means an example before the class of eager 
and loyal obedience. If the teacher is not prompt to 
obey the bell, take part in the singing, and be devout in 
worship, there will be a disloyal and disorderly class. 
Good "intentions" are no excuse; "taking the class 
offering," "closing the lesson," "'talking to Johnny," are 
not so important as sustaining order. 

Conditions of Order in the Class. The teacher 
who has the respect and love of his pupils, will also have 
order ; open insubordination will be impossible. There- 
fore, fellow-worker, "Take heed to thyself." Be in your 
place early. If a pupil is there first, it indicates that he 
has more interest than his teacher. If his teacher is 
visiting other teachers, the pupil will do likewise. If 
the class gets into an uproar before the teacher arrives, 
there will be disorder during the whole session. If, 
however, the early pupil finds an earlier teacher waiting 
for him with a glad greeting, he may snuggle up to her 
and open his heart to her. 

Begin work promptly ; get the attention of the class 
before somebody has stolen it. At home plan something 



ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 73 

for every one to do. The more the pupils do in the les- 
son the less will be the disorder. Stick to your class. 
If something is needed, send for it. Stick to your word. 
Make requests, give no orders. If compelled to give an 
order, enforce it. Study the character of each child, 
fit your demand to his abilities. 

It is foolish to expect children to live up to adult 
standards of conduct, or of virtue. The Primary teach- 
er who complains because her children are never still, 
is confessing that she does not understand them. Of 
course they are not still; if they were very sick or 
asleep they might be. But if they are in health, they 
ought to be active; for that is what God made them to 
be. The wise teacher will keep them active in saying 
and doing right things, then they will grow to love right 
things. 

The teacher with a class of ten-year-old boys wants 
them to be men, and declares they are a "set of 
monkies." Certainly they are. But what is a "boy 
monke)^ ? An animal that imitates. The Lord made 
small boys to be imitators. They must imitate. What 
are you giving them to imitate ? Present to your boys, 
not abstract virtues, but the noble characters of sacred 
and secular history, and they will imitate them and 
grow more like them. 

The teacher in his class stands for law and justice. 
He should speak as one who expects to be obeyed. He 
should be positive, but not self-willed. Haste and noise 
defeat discipline; severity to-day and carelessness to- 
morrow kill order. The teacher should be sure he is 
right, and then turn not. Yield before you start, or 
not at all (injustice excepted). Control is best asserted 
by the eye ; the tongue should be held in reserve. The 
eye is the only messenger that asserts authority and con- 
vevs love at the same moment. 



74 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

"Must I do it?" exclaims a child between eleven 
and thirteen, who feels his growing power and instinct 
of freedom. It is a critical moment. Alas, that so 
many of us are ready to answer: "Yes, my authority 
must be upheld now, or it is gone forever." Eo, it is a 
critical moment in the life of that child; for if he is 
forced to submit to an external, instead of an internal 
authority, he may be morally ruined. Our first duty is 
to save the child. "Must I do it ?" Let us look kindly 
and lovingly into the flashing eyes and answer: "Not 
now, Charley. We will talk it over after class." And 
(after class), "Charley, I ought to do what is right, and 
you ought to do what is right; we both agree to that, 
do we not? I know that I want to do what is right, and 
I believe that you want to do what is right. Is not this 
so ?" "Well now, think it over a little and then tell me 
what conscience says you ought to do, and what your 
own heart says you want to do." There is not one child 
in fifty that will not respond to such an appeal. And if 
we meet the case in this way, do we lose our authority, 
or strengthen it ? 

Discipline between Sundays. The worst class in 
the School is composed of individuals that can be cap- 
tured one by one, but not in the class. It may be done 
in a pupil's home. And certainly such a pupil needs 
to feel that his teacher's affection is not limited to the 
class hour, and the parents of such pupils need the 
uplifting influence of the teacher's personality. More- 
over, the teacher himself needs to see the boy in his 
home ; for until he has done so he really does not know 
the boy, or how to help him. 

Inducements to Order which appeal to selfishness, 
have no place in true discipline. For this reason prizes 



ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 75 

are always dangerous, and often do more harm than 
good. A prize is "something taken from another"; it 
makes no difference whether it is gained by animal 
power, or mental power. A reward is something given 
to everyone who reaches a fixed standard. Prizes are 
limited to one or two individuals. Eewards are open 
to all. God's government is based on rewards and 
penalties. His rewards for labor, effort, or spiritual 
struggle, are given to all who are faithful. 

Punishment is the last resort; it should not be the 
first. It should never occur before the class if it can 
be avoided. A sulky boy is perhaps the most difficult 
one to discipline. He is also the one that severe punish- 
men usually harms the most. Talk with the boy pri- 
vately as one who really loves the soul behind the sulki- 
ness. Consult with the parents. Do not complain to 
them. They may understand the boy less than you do. 
Next, if necessary, confer with the Superintendent or 
the Hector (whichever is the best disciplinarian). A 
change of class may mend matters. It is easier for a 
boy to submit to a new teacher. This should be done 
after an earnest talk to the boy from the Kector. If 
this fails (it seldom does), then the Kector should 
confer with the parents and make them realize that 
nothing is now left for the boy but obedience or expul- 
sion. If, after all this effort, the boy has to be expelled, 
the blame rests chiefly with the parents and goes back 
to neglect in his earliest training. In twenty-three 
years of Sunday School work I have expelled but one 
boy; and that was a mistake, arising from lack of ex- 
perience. And I know a lay Superintendent of over 
thirty-five years' experience who has the same record. 

The Influence of Environment on Order has 
received far too little attention. The School must have 



76 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

a place of meeting. Where shall it be ? It is astonish- 
ing to see the amount of money invested in churches 
and chapels, in guild houses for women, and club houses 
for men, and even church kitchens, bowling alleys and 
billiard rooms for outsiders, while the children, the most 
important part of the Church of Christ, the only part 
that can perpetuate the Church's life, and the con- 
tinuance of truth and righteousness on the earth — are 
left unprovided for, are expected to take what chance 
may have left after all others have been provided for. 
The Secretary of a Sunday School Commission states 
that a certain Church, planned and built a large parish 
house which was considered a model building. After 
it was completed, it was discovered that the Sunday 
School, containing a thousand souls, had been for- 
gotten! 

Give the School the lest place you can possibly get 
in the church building, or anywhere near it. And the 
best corner of this place give to the smallest children. 
I have seen a large infant class crowded into a dark, 
dingy, stuffy vestry room. I have seen a primary class 
sent to the basement, beside the coal bin. No arrange- 
ment could be more careless, or more cruel. 

The youngest children are the most sensitive of all 
to their surroundings. Their quarters should be the most 
sunny and attractive possible; with chairs low enough 
to allow the feet of the children to rest on the floor. 
The walls should be bright with pictures (they can be 
had for five cents each), hung on a level with the child's 
eye (not the teacher's), and changed from time to time 
as the instruction changes. There should be a good 
organ, with a sweet voice and a loving heart behind it. 
If proper accommodations are not to be had in the 
church building, take the class to the house of the Good 
Samaritan who lives nearest the church; and if anybody 



ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 77 

must go to the attic or the coal-hole, let it be a class of 
strong, healthy boys. It is harder to have order, harder 
to teach a child to love God, in a room that is damp 
and gloomy than in one that is flooded with sunshine. 
A disorderly room helps to make a disorderly class, a 
dirty room helps to make a class careless and indifferent, 
and a room filled with foul air makes part of the class 
stupid, the others restless, and everybody glad that the 
School meets but once a week. 

The Parish Church is built for devotion, built to 
unite the congregation in worship. It is not built to 
divide the congregation into classes for individual teach- 
ing. Its whole structure is against good order, and good 
lessons. The best School work cannot be done in a 
church, or chapel with fixed pews. 

There is too little attention given to the influence 
of surroundings. Every child should sit in front of 
his teacher. I never heard of anything called "a school" 
which put the child behind the teacher, except the one 
held on Sundays. If the class is compelled to occupy 
fixed pews, let the teacher sit behind her pupils and have 
those in front turn and face her. If there are reversible 
pews, or movable chairs, let the teacher occupy a seat 
that puts every pupil under her eye. Seat the pupils 
for order, not for fun; separate the mischievous. The 
sly child should be directly in front of the teacher, 
and the restless ones near enough to be touched by her 
hand. 

If a new church is to be built, and the parish is too 
poor to do better, it can at least put in modern reversible 
seats, which are more comfortable for the congregation 
than straight-backed pews. If a new parish building is 
to be built, let all the School officers and teachers, and 
all the pupils and all the mothers rise up together and 



78 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 



see that Christ's "little ones" have the best place in it. 
What the School needs is not one large room, that can 
always be found in the church ; but many small rooms : 
special rooms for the kindergarten and primary classes, 
special rooms for Bible classes, and as many separate 
rooms for the other classes as the parish can supply. 
These small rooms may be formed by sliding doors, or 
by heavy curtains, which can be thrown back to make 
]arger rooms for the social and industrial activities of 
the parish. The building, however, should be planned 
to meet Sunday School needs; then, by the addition of 
a kitchen, every other organization of the parish can 
find accommodations. 

The School building should be closely connected 
with the church, that the latter may be used for the 
opening services. The Kindergarten and Main School 
departments may well be on the ground floor, the Pri- 
mary department and Bible classes on the second floor. 
The room for the Main School department should not 
be seated lengthwise like a church, but sidewise like a 
class room. The general plan (modified to suit local 
conditions) may well follow the following lines: 




ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 79 

The plan is that of a central room surrounded on 
three sides by two large rooms for the Kindergarten 
classes (K), and smaller ones for the upper Main 
School classes; the corners being utilized for cloak 
rooms (one for boys, and one for girls), and Library 
rooms. The Superintendent's platform (P) is at one 
of the sides of the building. The aisles radiate from 
the platform, seats, chairs, or settees being placed be- 
tween them. The exact location of the different exits, 
entrances, and other details must be decided by ques- 
tions of air, light, and connection with the church build- 
ing. The Church of the Holy Apostles (Philadelphia) 
and St. Peter's (Brooklyn) each have buildings of this 
general plan. A few years ago the latter' s pupils were 
divided as follows : the two infant class rooms contained 
about 100 each; the 41 classes on the main floor con- 
tained 300; and the 14 Bible class rooms held 200 
pupils. (See frontispiece.) 

The Influence of Week-Day Work on Order 
is too important, too immediately helpful not to be 
considered. I have never known a successful School 
that limited its work to one day of the week. Order 
in the School generally suffers from the lack of parental 
discipline. The bad influences of the home, and the 
vicious influences of the cheap candy store, and the 
gutter gang must be met by counter influences. A boy 
is always hungry, not only to eat, but to be doing some- 
thing. Therefore it is his elders' duty to find something 
healthy for him to do. 

A Boys' Club, limited to School pupils, has proved 
most helpful in many parishes. Its head should be a 
layman, a young man who loves and understands boys. 
The Eector should have an official position. Its activ- 



80 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

ity may turn to readings and recitations ; talks on useful 
subjects from merchants, manufacturers, doctors, and 
lawyers, during the winter. Tramps and excursions, 
nature studies, or the making of natural history col- 
lections for a Club Cabinet. But an occasional supper 
should not be be forgotten; they are boys. 

Boys' Brigades, with simple uniforms, regular drill, 
and occasional parade is a popular organization, and 
one of the very best for discipline. The unruly boy 
learns to obey without knowing it. It may have its 
own headquarters and some of the activities of a club. 
The Cadets of Temperance is a Church body that has 
done good work in many places. Address "Church 
Temperance Legion," Church Missions House, New 
York City, for particulars. 

The Junior Brotherhood, an organization under the 
control of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, is doing an 
excellent Christian work among boys. Some new dis- 
coveries have recently been made in boy nature. One of 
the most important is that the average Sunday School 
boy can be induced to give a definite part of week-day 
time to Church work. In a single number of the St. An- 
drew's Cross, I read of a junior Bible class of 60 boys, 
who studied and wrote out at home, every week, the an- 
swers to eight or ten printed questions. In a Northern 
parish, boys of an age when they usually want to quit 
Sunday School, were attending Bible study, going after 
absentees to keep them from "dropping out," hunting 
up new pupils, and assisting the School and Church in 
other ways. In a Southern parish the boys were con- 
centrating their efforts on the improvement of the 
School and the boys' choir. And in both lines they 
were doing successful work. New pupils were added to 
the School, and an orchestra of six pieces was provided 



OKDER AND DISCIPLINE. 81 

to help the singing of the School. In a New York 
City parish, the boys' chapter is keeping up School at- 
tendance ; calling on the absent ; welcoming visiting boys 
to School and Church; distributing the parish paper 
and invitation cards at houses and stores; and helping 
the men of the senior chapter at a weekly Gospel ser- 
vice, by arranging chairs, distributing books, and mak- 
ing themselves generally useful. 

I have referred only to the most striking instances 
in a single copy of the Cross. And remember, the 
workers are "the big boys/' over whom we have groaned, 
and despairingly asked, "How can we keep them in the 
School?" They have themselves answered our ques- 
tion. And their answer is, "We don't want you to keep 
us in School. Give us a good leader and something to 
do; and we will help you to keep the younger boys in 
School." It will pay to heed their request, no matter 
what it costs. It will pay the parish, pay the leader, 
pay the boys, both in this life and the world to come. 
Send to St. Andrew's Cross, Broad Exchange Building, 
Boston, Mass., for methods of organization and work. 
Keep in touch with other workers through the St. An- 
drew's Cross. 

The Junior Aid Society, an organization of the 
older girls, will aid in School government. Here the 
girls are taught to sew, and to make useful articles for 
the poor, and for an annual sale. Its director should 
be an experienced woman, appointed by the Eector. The 
children may well be allowed to elect the other officers. 
I have already spoken of the great aid that can be 
given the School by the faithful work of a Chapter of 
the Daughters of the King. Information about its 
methods may be obtained from its Secretary, Church 
Missions House, New York. In small parishes and mis- 



82 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

sions a Workers 5 Club, composed of both boys and girls, 
will, under wise leadership, have a large good-order 
value. Every child can make something with knife, 
or needle, pencil, brush, or tool chest. Teach him to 
make it better, whatever it may be, and stimulate him to 
do his best by an annual exhibition of all the work, and 
an honest sale of whatever is donated to the School. 

The Effect of Vacations on Discipline is deter- 
mined by the nature of the vacation. Good workers 
need vacations, but the work must go on, for what is 
the salvation of the worker may be the ruination of the 
School. Even the class may have a vacation, but not 
the pupils who remain in the parish. To close the 
School means scattering the pupils. What are they 
to do ? Staying at home during the School hour forms 
a habit of absenteeism that will hurt the School in the 
autumn. Visiting the schools of other communions 
forms another bad habit, and may lay a foundation for 
future doubt or unbelief; for children cannot discrimi- 
nate between contradictory teaching which concerns the 
faith, and that which belongs to personal opinion. On 
the other hand, to attempt to keep up regular class 
work with the few teachers and pupils left in the parish, 
is hard for the officers and discouraging to the scholars. 

Let the session in July and August be held at an 
early hour. Give class organization, and regular rou- 
tine a vacation. Let the School gather as one body, 
under the Eector or Superintendent. Make the session 
shorter than usual, and brighter, with plenty of singing. 
Let the lesson be an illustrated review of some part of 
the Catechism, an explanation of the Prayer Book, a 
Bible story, or some other instruction out of the usual 
line; but let it be well prepared, interesting, and help- 
ful. Distribute the books and papers as usual, and send 



ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. 83 

the children home happy, with something good to think 
over, and something good to read in the afternoon. 

In closing these Chapters on Organization, Adminis- 
tration, Government, and Discipline, all of great im- 
portance ; I want to add a word of caution. It matters 
not how true our theories may be, or how exalted our 
principles may be, both will be worthless unless there 
is a devout and conscientious person to put them into 
practice. Our School may have an ideal organization 
on paper, but it is worth only the paper it is written on 
unless there is a wise and loving person behind it to put 
his own throbbing life into it. Our School's adminis- 
tration and discipline may be models, yet they will be a 
delusion, unless noble-hearted men and women breathe 
into them their own Christ-given life. 

Careful reading, and observation of some of the 
most successful Schools show many differences in de- 
tails and methods. But this is true of all. The 
Schools in which the Eector has faced his responsi- 
bilities, as the spiritual leader and guide of his children, 
are the ones in which is to be found a reverent worship, 
a healthy growth in Christian character, and large 
classes for Confirmation. The Schools that are the 
strongest in numbers, that have the largest proportion 
of young women and young men in their classes are 
those which are officered by the best men and women 
to be found in the community. The Schools which have 
outlived changing neighborhoods, and grown strong in 
spite of all difficulties, are those in which the Christian 
influence of the teacher in the class is strengthened by 
week-day work in the home. In other words, the most 
powerful factor in every Sunday School is the Christ- 
like character of its officers and teachers. 



CHAPTEK VI. 
WOKSHIR 

"Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, Thou hast 
perfected praise" — Our Lord. 

I. The Regular Services should he Brief. The 
School exists for instruction; its hour is only too short. 
The services of the Church are for worship, and the 
children should be encouraged to attend them. More- 
over, the brief service of the School should be so framed 
that it will be not only spiritually helpful, but de- 
votionally instructive; thus helping the children *to 
understand and appreciate the Church service. There 
are to-day in the Church thousands who do not under- 
stand the Prayer Book in their hands. Why ? Because 
they have come into the Church without proper in- 
struction, or have come from Sunday Schools that did 
not use the Prayer Book. 

The Ideal Plan is to have the School meet in the 
afternoon, open with a hymn and collects, then go at 
once to the lessons. Close with a recessional hymn, 
during the singing of which the classes, each with its 
own banner, march from the chapel, or school building, 



WORSHIP. 85 

into the church for regular (rubrically shortened) 
Evening Prayer; the music led by a boys' choir and 
made as bright as possible. It is ideal because it brings 
the child under the influence of the Church's service 
every Sunday ; and because it leaves the Eector (having 
had his Eucharist, Morning, and Evening Prayer) free 
to have in the evening an Evangelistic or Missionary 
service adapted to the needs of the neighborhood. 

In the average parish and mission, the ideal is diffi- 
cult to make real; so we must face the actual situation, 
and do the best we can. The service should be taken 
from Prayer Book and Hymnal. It should be confined 
to ten minutes. It should open and close with a bright 
hymn, include the Lord's Prayer and Creed; the other 
parts may well be changeable, that there may be variety, 
and that the children may become acquainted with dif- 
ferent parts of the Church service. The Prayer Book 
should be in the hands of the children, the pages given 
out, and the children find the places. The changeable 
part of the service may well include, at different times, 
the reading of a Psalm, the Commandments with re- 
sponses, said or sung, a part of the Litany during Ad- 
vent, and Lent; with the singing of the Gloria Patria, 
and the different canticles of Morning, and Evening 
Prayer. Where the School is large it is better to allow 
the Kindergarten Department to have its own, simpler 
service in its own rooms ; and allow the Bible classes to 
have a longer session than the Main School, and to close 
with a brief class-service. 

The Music should have More Attention than is 
usually given it. The Infant class may have its own 
little hymns, but in the other grades the music as much 
as the Catechism, should be a training for the Church. 
Singing is a most powerful factor in instruction. It 



86 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

is the easiest way to teach doctrine and the most lasting 
way. We cannot separate the devotional effect of a 
hymn from its doctrinal instruction; therefore we 
should select with care, and with ar definite purpose ; 
knowing that its lines will be remembered after the 
lesson has been forgotten. In the soul of the "bad boy," 
down deeper than what he says or does, knows or thinks, 
there are often tendencies for good which music alone 
can reach and awaken to action. All children in- 
stinctively feel religious truths which they do not under- 
stand, and cannot express except in singing. A prayer- 
ful hymn, sung prayerfully, will help most children 
more than a spoken prayer. The same hymn, sung 
irreverently, is equally powerful to destroy the spirit of 
devotion in the soul of the child. 

Praise must he Truthful. To teach children to 
sing words which they do not believe, is to teach them 
to utter falsehoods. They are not "weary of earth," 
nor "burdened with sin," they are not "longing for 
heavenly rest," nor "wanting to be angels," and to make 
them sing such things is to empty their devotional acts 
of all meaning, and to make them little hypocrites. 
The only hymns about heaven fit for children are those 
which tell of its brightness, joy, and gladness. In the 
Hymnal, hymns 531 to 578 are selected for the chil- 
dren, and there are many others to be found under such 
heads as, Hope, Joy, Courage, Action, Struggle, Con- 
quest, Victory, etc. Eemember that on a child, the 
words of a hymn make more impression than the words 
of a Creed. 

Fit the Music to the Child's Needs, to his present 
needs, and also to his place in the congregation. There 
is no reason why primary grades which are taught to 
repeat the simple Psalms, should not be taught to sing 



WORSHIP. 87 

them. If this is done systematically, the time will 
come when we shall have in the American Church what 
is common in the English, the whole congregation 
heartily singing the Psalms for the day. The Psalms 
are to be "said or sung," not to be listened to. They are 
for "common" praise, and if they cannot be "sung" in 
common, they should be "said" in common. For a few 
children to stand by the organ and sing, while all the 
others stand listlessly looking on, or making trouble for 
their teachers, is a positive injury to the School, and to 
the child. There is no need to limit the singing to the 
Psalms and Canticles of Morning and Evening Prayer. 
He was a wise Superintendent who, even in the Infant 
class, did not allow a Commandment to be recited with- 
out the organ giving the note and the children singing, 
"Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to 
keep this law." To the singing of the Kyrie, may well 
be added the singing of the Gloria in Excelsis and the 
Sa?ictuSj all to simple settings. 

The Eev. Marcus Carroll well says : "We must re- 
member that the taste of children is exceedingly ductile, 
and that the hymns we give them to learn as examples 
of Christian poetry, and the music set to hymns we put 
before them will, undoubtedly, lay the foundation of 
their taste for religious music and poetry in after years. 
. . . In the Sunday School we have our opportunity 
to lay stress on the better tunes (of such composers as 
Stainer, Barnby, Dykes, Gauntlett, Sullivan, Parker). 
Let us see to it that the hymns which our children sing 
when they gather round the piano at home, or in 
summer camps, shall be hymns that they know ; and 
let it be our business to see that they know the good 
ones. 

"In selecting hymns it is necessary to keep in mind 



US THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the scope of the child's voice. This is limited to the 
compass of about an octave — not much more — -from D 
or E (first space below, first line upon the staff) to E or 
possibly F (fourth space and fifth line). A hymn like 
'Jesus Christ is risen to-day/ in its third and fourth 
lines at least, puts a severe strain upon the voice of a 
child. It runs too high. The tune 'Ewing' runs both 
too high and too low. These considerations are not 
enough to rule out a really good tune, but they ought to 
be kept in view." 

Suitable hymns for children under eleven: 11, 49, 
58, 65, 112, 254, 412, 452, 515, 516, 532, 534, 535, 538, 
540, 544, 550, 553, 560, 562, 563, 567, 578. For older 
children: 110, 143, 261, 319, 418, 503, 505, 506, 507, 
509, 521, 522, 542, 556, 558, 568, 570, 573, 577, 640, 
656, 672. For doctrine the following are valuable: 
90/91, 149, 153, 375, 379, 383, 387, 388, 463, 591, 
537. 

Help the Children to Understand What they Sing. 
"Have your musician at the keyboard and your teacher 
well up in his work. First, get your children interested 
in the words. Eead them aloud and reverently, with 
correct emphasis. Explain hard words, try to give a 
common-sense idea of the poetical expression; though 
this is dangerous ground and must be well thought out 
beforehand, for sentiment is like the powder on a butter- 
fly's wings, a rude touch will turn beauty into dust and 
ashes. At any rate get an idea into the children's heads 
of what they are about to sing. Then have the children 
read it aloud in unison on a low pitch. Next, have the 
organist play it over well, while the children sing it 
silently in their minds, or as I have expressed it, 'away 
back in the top of their heads, with their mouths shut, 
and their eyes following every word on the book as the 



WORSHIP. 89 

organ is saying it/ " This is excellent advice, and if 
it were followed generally, the children would worship 
with the understanding as well as the emotions. 

Children s Church is sometimes condemned, simply 
because some ministers, following denominational ex- 
ample, have made it a substitute for the services of the 
Church. Rightly conducted, it educates the child to 
take his place in the congregation. As the larger num- 
ber of Schools are held immediately after Morning 
Prayer, perhaps the best time for it is on the afternoon 
of the first Sunday of the month when, in most parishes, 
there is a noonday Celebration. This time may be a 
little harder for the Sector, but it prevents the destruc- 
tion of the peace and quietness of the Eucharist by the 
waiting children crowding into the church. 

The children should assemble in the chapel, if there 
is one, and with their banners march to seats assigned 
beforehand. The service should be the short form of 
Evening Prayer and include every part of the service, 
though not (necessarily) the whole of the Evening's 
Psalms or the whole of each lesson. As the Gospel for 
the day is the most important part of the day's Scrip- 
tures, it is well to use it, or a part of it rather than a 
portion of a lesson from the Epistles. The children 
should be made to understand that it is their service, 
and that the Sector is depending upon them for all 
the responses, and all the singing. If the children are 
made to understand this they will loyally do their part. 
I have never known it to fail. Of course the Prayer 
Book is used, the pages being announced. If the chil- 
dren have not yet learned all the evening canticles, a 
hymn may be substituted ; but they should be taught the 
chants at once. Special preparation for the music of 
this service should be made during the month. A 



90 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

service that costs nothing is usually worth what it 
costs. 

It Should be a Model Service. The teachers should 
see that special attention is given to reverent and devout 
participation by every child present. The children's 
sermon, instruction, or Bible story must be carefully 
prepared, and be the very best the Eector knows how to 
give. It is a grave mistake, and a ruinous one for us 
to think that anybody can address children, or that the 
instruction will be worth anything when given, unless 
it has been carefully prepared to fit the child's great 
need, and limited experience. Whatever the nature of 
the instruction it should be followed by a brief exam- 
ination on its teaching, the questions being addressed 
to different classes, or to the whole School. 

The Class Offerings. When it is time for the Offer- 
ing, the name of each class is called, and a child from 
the class comes forward and deposits in the alms basin 
an envelope containing the amount given by the class 
during the preceding month. This method is followed 
because the school unit is not the individual, but the 
class. If the amount is announced (it is an incentive 
to do so), it should be done without comment. The 
emphasis of all instruction on giving must fall upon its 
regularity and devotional meaning, not on its amount. 
When the offering is completed it should be "humbly 
presented and placed upon the Holy Table." At the 
next session of the School the whole amount of the 
offering may be announced, and compared with the 
offering of the previous month. Only, what is treated 
as important by their instructors will be considered 
important by the children. 

Special Services should be planned for the children. 
I doubt if there ever was a time when the secular world 



WORSHIP. 91 

did so much for children as is being done to-day. For 
us to make no special provision for them is to make 
them feel that the Church cares less for them than the 
world does. Eectors frequently complain of the absence 
of children from the regular services of the Church, but 
what has been done to make them welcome, or even to 
recognize their presence when they do attend? How 
many Eectors instruct them in the use of the Prayer 
Book, address a few words to them in the sermon, or 
give them a kind word before or after service? If we 
treated adults as we do the children, would they be 
regular Church-goers ? 

I recall one stormy morning, in New York City, 
when a whole orphan asylum was unexpectedly given 
a place in the pews. The presence of so many children 
made me realize that my sermon would be far above 
the heads of the children and that it would be cruel to 
keep them all sermon-time without a special word. 
Therefore, near the middle of the sermon, I spoke to the 
children for three or four minutes, and their bright- 
faced attention showed their appreciation. During the 
week following I heard much from that sermon. All 
who spoke to me were adults; yet the only part men- 
tioned was that addressed to the children ! If we tried 
more frequently to meet the needs of the children we 
should have them in the pews; and we might also help 
their elders to understand our sermons. 

During Lent the children should have their own 
special service. An afternoon hour that will allow them 
to come from public school to Church is usually best. 
It is only necessary to impress upon the children that 
it is their own service, and that you are depending upon 
them for responses and singing, and they will come. I 
have had at Lenten services nearly all the School except 



92 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the infant and Bible classes; and have been stopped on 
the street, weeks before Lent, with the question : "When 
will our services begin ?" Hymns and responses should 
make up the most of the service. The children like to 
say the Litany, and soon learn to love it. A well told 
Bible story, or Catechism story is better than a sermon. 
A small English book, "Stories on the Catechism," by 
Miss Jones (two volumes), has proved very helpful 
when changed to fit x\merican localities and familiar 
environment. 

At Easter the children's hour must not be made a 
show; it should be a bright and beautiful service of wor- 
ship and instruction. Have the service at an early 
evening hour in order to secure the presence of parents 
who do not attend the regular services. Meet actual 
conditions by telling your children "to bring their 
parents." Fathers who would not attend church to save 
their own souls, will come to please their children. And 
at the end of your children's address, add three minutes 
of the most heartfelt and soulful words you can utter, 
to the parents. 

The children's Lenten offerings should be presented 
at this service. It should be called for and given by 
classes (see page 90). It can be made a beautiful fea- 
ture of the service by providing each class with a small 
bouquet to be given with the offering ; the flowers being 
used to transform a plain cross, standing in the choir, 
into an Easter cross. In case this is done, the offering 
had better be made early in the service. Another at- 
tractive and instructive feature that may take the place 
of the cross, is secured by providing each class with an 
evergreen letter decorated with flowers. This given 
with the Class offering, and hung on a wire stretched 
across the church, helps to spell out an Easter text, such 



WORSHIP. 93 

as : "Christ is Risen," from which the Rector addresses 
the children. (Care should be taken beforehand to see 
that the letters will hang perpendicularly.) 

At Christmas-tide also the service should be one of 
happy worship, not of frolic. "Shall we have the 
Christmas tree in the church?" If the parish has no 
other place for a Christian service, it should be in the 
church. It is far better, for the religious welfare of the 
children, to have the tree in a church than to have a 
bedlam in a public hall. The tendency to-day is to 
make Christmas a secular or social festival for fun and 
frolic ; there is need that we should emphasize its spirit- 
ual side. If the church carpet is covered, the tree se- 
curely nailed to an horizontal X resting on the floor, 
and three radiating wires are fastened from the top of 
the tree to different parts of the building, the tree can 
be placed anywhere without injury to the building. 

Candles have destroyed too many chapels ever to be 
used again. Even small towns, now have electricity, 
and "for the children's sake," the company will light 
the tree for the small cost of the wires destroyed. 
Bright, colored tissue paper, placed bell-shaped over the 
lamps, gives a beautiful effect and a safe one. A hired 
stereopticon light, or a borrowed locomotive headlight 
may be used to illuminate the tree; anything in fact, 
except candles. 

After the bright Christmas carols have been sung, 
the brief and loving instruction given, and the prayers 
offered ; then, the gifts may be distributed. If there are 
nuts and candies, they should not be handed to the 
children until they are leaving the building. In many 
schools the custom of making gifts is limited to the 
infant and primary grades. A good custom, and one 
that is growing, is for the children to follow the ex- 



94 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

ample of the Wise Men at Bethlehem, and bring gifts to 
the Church that the children of the poor and the out- 
cast may know the happiness of Christmas-tide. Chil- 
dren cannot be taught too early that "It is more blessed 
to give than to receive." It is best for the children's 
service to be held on one of the Holy Days after Christ- 
mas. What has already been said about the hour for the 
Easter service, applies here with equal force. 

The Support of the Sunday School. The children's 
offerings ought not to be given back to them in picture 
papers and library books. This is a training in selfish- 
ness. It is teaching the very thing which makes many 
congregations to-day willing to give for carpets, and 
cushions, and church decorations, but unwilling to give 
anything "outside of the parish." Giving is worship, 
and the sooner the children are taught, and made to 
practice this truth the better. Worship is something 
given to God; it is not something given for our own 
comfort, or our own pleasure. When the appeal is made 
to the highest motive that the child can understand, 
every unspoiled child responds generously. Look at the 
children's answer to the appeal for missions. The 
Lenten offerings of the children have now passed the 
$120,000 mark ! Could they have been induced to give 
any such sum for books and papers ? 

"But if we give our money to missions, how is the 
School to be supported?" How is the day school sup- 
ported? Do the fathers of our children object to sup- 
porting the secular schools? Is the Sunday School of 
less value ? Or is it a needless luxury ? The School is 
a part of the parish, of its very life, and the Sunday 
School bill is, to say the least, not less important than 
the whitewash bill, or the stove-pipe bill. For a parish 
to refuse to support its School is to undermine the 



WORSHIP. 95 

foundation on which it stands, A denominational con- 
gregation that denies Church membership to its chil- 
dren, might consistently refuse to pay for their religious 
education as "members of Christ, and Children of God/' 
but not a parish which believes in Holy Baptism, and 
that the Christian Covenant includes children. And 
yet over one-half of the parishes in America that claim 
to be a part of the "One Catholic and Apostolic Church" 
are to-day compelling the little "members of Christ*' 
to pay for hearing about their Saviour, and compelling 
all who give time and strength to the Sunday School, 
to help pay its bills ! 

Vestries Are Willing to Support the School, when 
the matter is properly presented to them. The Eector 
knows about how much the School needs annually for 
efficient work. (Usually it is from 75 cents to $1.00 a 
child.) He also knows that the parish is under obliga- 
tions to help support the missionary work of the diocese. 
Having, for example, a School of 100 pupils, he goes to 
the Vestry and says : "I want the School to give $80 to- 
wards the missionary work of the Diocese,^ and I ask the 
Vestry to assume the support of the School to that 
amount, or such part of it, as the School pays to Mis- 
sions." The Vestry will probably smile, and call it 
"taking money out of one pocket to put into another." 
That is what it does mean to the Vestry, and therefore 
it cannot refuse. But it makes a vast difference whether 
the children are being taught to give to themselves, or 
to contribute to Church Missions. 

But children need to be taught to support the parish, 
and the School, as well as Missions. Why do they need 
it ? When, in the American Church, a parish has been 
discovered which gives to Missions and yet fails to give 
for its own support, this argument may need an an- 
swer. 



96 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

The children feel the difference between giving for 
themselves and giving for God's work. A School that 
had been regularly giving $2.50 a month to pay for its 
papers and leaflets, gave the next month $4.00 to help 
the Diocesan Missionary, "who was starting schools for 
children who had none." The next month it gave over 
$6.00, and before long the amount was over $10.00, and 
was kept there. But of more value than the dollars 
was the children's education in Christian giving. Indi- 
vidually the money was given weekly, kept by the 
teacher, and at Children's Church given by the class, 
and presented at the Altar. That School quadrupled 
its offerings. When all the children have been educated 
in the same way, it will only be a short generation be- 
fore the parish offerings also will be quadrupled. Is 
not this worth praying for, and working for ? 



CHAPTER VII. 
INSTRUCTION: ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES. 

"Ye have need that one teach you . . . the first principles 

of the oracles of God, . . . [Babes] have need of 

milk, and not of strong meat." — St. Paul. 

Instruction Must Have a Definite Spiritual 
Purpose. — We have organized our School. The Pastor 
has met his assistants and teachers, and instructed them 
in administration, discipline, and worship. What is 
the next step ? Judging from general practice, it is to 
find such text books or leaflets as will please the teach- 
ers and be popular with the pupils. But to do this is 
to confess that we have not organized a School, but an 
entertainment bureau. It is this false conception of the 
purpose of the organization which makes many Sunday 
Schools pitiable failures. 

How can a School be anything but a blunder and a 
by- word when its head is not ashamed to say : "Oh, we 
change our text books every year ; one year on any sys- 
tem is about as much as teachers or children can stand. 
What books are you using ?" As though it were books 



98 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

and not the persons behind them that decided whether 
a School should be a blunder or a blessing! Imagine 
a young carpenter looking at an older man's work and 
saying, ''That is excellent; I should like to turn out a 
job like that. Say, what tools do you use?" And 
where will you find a college, a high school, or a primary 
school that says, "Oh, we change our books every year"? 
Yet if it be the right thing to do in a school intended 
to fit children for an endless life, why is it not the right 
thing to do in schools that are fitting children for the 
brief life of earth ? 

A School exists to Instruct: a Sunday School to 
Instruct in Righteousness. All true teaching is con- 
structive; it builds up the learner in truth and godli- 
ness. A true teacher does not talk about righteous- 
ness, or impart knowledge about character. The real 
test of his work, the only test of heaven, is not what his 
pupils know, but what his pupils are. This is the ideal 
named at the Font. The instruction of the Sunday 
School finds its foundation in the teaching of the Christ- 
ian Covenant ; or if it does not exist to make that Cove- 
nant a reality, then it has no reason for existing. 

The Covenant idea is God's idea, it is the basic idea 
of the Catholic and Apostolic Church from the hour in 
which Christ said, "This is My blood of the New Cove- 
nant. . . " But it matters not how sacred a truth 
may be, it is worthless if held only as a theory. There- 
fore if parents do not live up to Christ's Covenant, and 
sponsors do not live up to it, pastors and teachers must 
do so ; and to them will come the reward of their faith- 
fulness and labor of love. 

Instruction must follow a Definite Plan. — 
The whole course of teaching in Infant and Primary 



INSTRUCTION: ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES. 99 

class, in Main School, Bible and Confirmation class, 
should be planned to teach the Biblical truths of the 
Christian Covenant as a spiritual preparation for its 
sacramental life. The teacher of the Infant class ought 
to see in each little child a future communicant of the 
Church ; and should seek to lay in each heart the founda- 
tion needed for Christ-like work and worship. And the 
vision of the Infant class teacher should be the vision 
of the Primary teacher, and become the realization of 
the Main School teacher — a benediction to the Church 
and Nation. Loyalty to the Prayer Book means one, 
definite purpose, the building up of the child in mind 
and heart, "Unto the measure of the stature of the ful- 
ness of Christ. v 

Instruction Must Be Based on Definite Truth 
and Doctrine. If we have grasped the purpose for which 
the School exists, we know that the basis of our teaching 
must be the Biblical truths and doctrines of the Christ- 
ian Covenant. The foundation of the child's instruc- 
tion was stated at the Font; namely, "The Creed, the 
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments." The 
Church's one official interpretation of these summaries 
of Christian faith, doctrine, prayer, and sacramental 
worship, is found in the Church Catechism. It is easy 
to read into the Catechism what the Church has not 
put there. It is equally easy to empty the Church's 
words of all meaning; but is this honest? When a 
Sunday School text book is so constructed that it is 
acceptable to Unitarians, on the one hand, or to Eoman 
Catholics on the other, does it honestly teach Christian 
truth and doctrine "as this Church hath received the 
same" ? If we are loyal Churchmen we shall certainly 
be loyal to the Prayer Book. 

LOFC, 



100 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

If there is to be anything definite in manhood's 
grasp of Christian faith and Christian duty it must 
come from definite instruction in childhood. The thou- 
sands whose conception of Christianity is to-day only 
a smudge, or a blur, owe their perilous instability to the 
omission of definite instruction in their early years. 
It is the present fashion to be definite in everything 
except the all-important thing, our relation to God. 
Yet the human mind craves definiteness. By the time a 
boy is ten or eleven years of age he wants to know what 
to believe, and why he should believe it. If his teacher 
cannot give him what he needs, then that teacher should 
make room for one who can. The healthy mind is not 
at rest until it has a definite faith on which to rest. 
And no mind really possesses a truth, either in science 
or religion, which it cannot formulate. 

The Catechism presents Church truth and doctrine 
not in its relation to philosophy but in its relation to 
human needs; not in the language of a theological en- 
cyclopaedia but mainly in the language of Holy 
Scripture and of human life. The basic truths of the 
Bible are the basic truths of the Catechism. It is a 
united body of truth, not a mass of disconnected shreds 
and patches of truth. It is presented in Scriptural 
form, and Scriptural proportion. It is the Bible in 
essence and therefore is the best possible guide to the 
study of the first principles and doctrines of the Bible. 
It should not be studied separately, or apart from the 
Bible. ISTo one form of words however accurate, can 
convey to anyone the whole truth in the mind of the 
inspired writer. In the study of God's relation to, and 
dealings with the men and women of Holy Scripture 
we find a divine light illuminating the Catechism's 
statement of God's relation to immortal souls to-day. 



INSTRUCTION: ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES. 101 

Instruction should follow Definite Pedagog- 
ical Principles. During the past twenty years the 
scientific study of child nature has transformed the 
whole course and method of instruction in the public 
schools. It is unwise to claim that they have made no 
mistakes in their methods. It is still more unwise to 
claim that the changes are not in the line of progress 
and improvement. During the same generation Church 
Schools have, with some noble exceptions, made few 
changes, and little progress. There seems to be in many 
quarters a foolish notion that we cannot teach the faith 
of our grandsires unless we do it by the methods of our 
grandsires. 

The children in our Sunday School come to us from 
the public school. They are quick to feel the difference 
of method, and to show a loss in interest. As soon 
as they are old enough to think, they begin to make 
comparisons, the Sunday School is "slow and stupid," 
or, worse yet, "religion is slow and stupid" ; and, unless 
they have a strong personal affection for their teacher, 
they want to drop out of the inferior school. The ab- 
sence of modern pedagogical principles, the dull, mo- 
notonous drifting, without aim, or method, or living in- 
terest which characterizes many of our Schools is a 
large factor in cultivating that contempt for Church 
and religion which we too frequently find in the minds 
of wide-awake pupils. 

God's First Principle. In the beginning God created 
every living thing with a nature of its own, and com- 
manded it to grow, and bring forth fruit according to 
its own nature, and after its own kind. The divine 
principle is to let every healthy, living thing grow in its 
own way. We cannot improve on God's plan. If in 
our teaching we would be "fellow laborers with God," 



102 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

we must be loyal to His principle of development, must 
study the nature of the pupil at each stage of his growth, 
supply the mental and moral nourishment he needs, 
and then reverently keep out of his way and allow him 
to develop naturally, according to the divine plan. It 
is the right of every child to grow in harmony with 
God's purpose. It is the duty of teachers and parents 
to allow him to do so. 

If we gave less attention to stopping right activity, 
his only means of growth, he would less frequently rush 
into wrong activity. If we were less anxious about his 
"right development," and more anxious to supply him 
with healthy nourishment for mind and soul, we 
should be much happier over the result — and so would 
the child. A speaker, about to address a lot of London 
street-boys, began with the question, "How many bad 
boys does it take to make a good one?" The answer 
came back, prompt and pointed : "One, if you treat him 
properly." That boy's words suggest the whole science 
of religious pedagogy. Do you understand them ? 

Right Instruction s Basic Principle is Adjustment 
to Growth. If we would attain the purpose for which 
the School exists, our teaching material, methods, and 
whole process of instruction must be adapted to the 
developing natures of the children we would train for 
Christ. This is the only natural method. The growth 
of a child from babyhood to manhood is not a simple 
increase of childhood's size and power; there are new 
developments, there is a series of clearly marked stages 
of capacity and attainment. The Divine Teacher's 
comparison is: "First the blade, then the ear, after 
that the full corn in the ear." So it is with the child. 
At each stage he differs in mental power, in emotional 
tendencies, in natural interests, and in individual mo- 



INSTRUCTION: ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES. 103 

tives ; if we would help him to true knowledge, and true 
spiritual attainment our instruction must adapt itself 
to the child's real nature. 

The True Curriculum is decided by the Natural 
Development of the Child.. The child is not a small 
and weak adult, therefore the old idea that he is to be 
taught the same lesson as the adult has no foundation 
except ignorance of the child's nature and capacity. A 
mature mind comprehends philosophical truths and 
theological distinctions, but no smallness of dose, or 
largeness of baby-talk dilution can make such subjects 
clear to immature minds. The frequent attempt to 
force upon the younger pupils of the Sunday School 
the theological conceptions of adults concerning the 
most mysterious truths of Christianity has done much to 
make religion unattractive, or positively distasteful to 
healthy children. 

If we would not repel Christ's "little ones," we 
must remember the child's mind, being essentially dif- 
ferent from the adult's, he must be nourished by differ- 
ent Scripture material, and essentially different meth- 
ods of presentation. What the child needs in religion 
is usually what the normal child asks for. The child's 
"strange questions," "amusing suggestions," "unex- 
pected judgments," or "astonishing conclusions," are 
all revelations of the unlikeness of his mind to ours, 
and of the unlike truth and instruction which he needs. 
Indeed such particular suggestions are usually more 
valuable to a live teacher, than the general suggestions 
of this manual, or any other handbook on teaching. 

Instruction at each stage of growth must be decided 
by the Actual Needs of the Child. The order of child- 
development, is the natural order of study-development. 
Each period of a child's life has its own powers and 



104 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

impulses, its own limitations and capabilities, its own 
interests and ideals; therefore, common sense tells us 
that these facts must be taken into account, and that our 
methods of teaching should be adjusted to the condi- 
tions of the particular souls we desire to instruct. As 
increasing years bring increased mental and moral ca- 
pacity, wider interests, more complex needs, so they 
bring to us the duty of making corresponding changes 
in the matter and method of our instruction to adapt it 
to the developing child. 

In the earliest grades the utmost care should be 
taken to teach nothing but the truth ; yet it is impossible 
that it should be the whole truth. In these grades there 
is less educational material than elsewhere, and the 
temptation is to use advanced and unsuitable material. 
The attempt to teach children what neither their ca- 
pacity nor their experience fits them to receive, neces- 
sarily results in giving them false impressions of truth, 
which the child is obliged to unlearn; a most difficult 
process. The wise teacher in the lower grades is one 
who knows what to leave out of instruction. 

The Whole Course of Instruction should be a Unit; 
each stage of which should present an essential part of 
that unit. No principle of religious instruction is more 
frequently sinned against than this. Our Sunday 
School courses are made up of shreds of Holy Scripture, 
patches of doctrine, and tag-ends of truth without order, 
and often without relation or sequence. Yet without a 
definite plan of instruction, covering the whole ten or 
twelve years of a pupil's course, there can be no har- 
mony of teaching — no ministering to the child's present 
needs, no preparation for the next stage of instruction ; 
and consequently, no moral progress, or growth in spir- 
itual character. There is no need for any such deplor- 



INSTRUCTION: ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES. 105 

able result. The Church's definite system of teaching, 
set forth in the Catechism, gives us a foundation for 
Scripture truth and doctrine that should bind together 
our whole course of study; and for us, who claim a 
historic Church, it is certainly unwise to ignore the 
unifying power of her historic faith and doctrine. 

Each Stage of Instruction should appeal to the Nat- 
ural, and Spontaneous Interests of the Child at that 
stage. Children are always interested in something, 
usually in too many somethings ; that is why it is diffi- 
cult to tie them down to the most important something. 
But it is a blunder to think that our interests are their 
interests; or even that our interests ought to be their 
interests. It is our wisdom as teachers to be interested 
most of all in the natural and healthy interests of our 
pupils. A child's interests are not permanent; they 
change with the changing stages of his growth. There 
are few things in this world, or the world to come, in 
which an unperverted child is not interested at some 
period of his growth. His interest in a subject may be 
hardly perceptible, it may be warm, it may be at a 
white heat. In our teaching the great thing is to strike 
when the iron is hot, and the hotter it is the deeper will 
be the impression made by the hammer of truth. 

A pupil's interests are the expression of his internal 
condition, and this is as true of his religious interest as 
of any other. His expression of a new interest calls 
our attention to a new stage of his growth, to the open- 
ing of a new door into his mind or heart. Usually a 
new religious interest discloses the awakening of a new 
religious hunger which is asking to be nourished. Every 
new interest reveals to a wise teacher new development, 
new capacity, new opportunity for training in right- 
eousness. If you have any truth to impart to the new 



106 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

interest, give it at once. A child's interest is worth 
more than all our careful preparation. His interest 
will not be the same next Sunday unless we nourish it 
to-day. The child's new hunger is of more value than 
the "regular lesson." The lesson of the text book is 
fundamentally irregular and everlastingly wrong if it 
does not meet the God-given hunger of the child. 

The Spontaneous 'Religious Interests of Children, 
according to Dr. E. M. Hodge, are as follows : 

1. Avidity for stories is manifest from the second 

to the ninth year. 

(a) Stories of simple obedience are called for 
until the seventh year. 

(6) Stories of the reasonableness of obedience 
for the eighth and ninth years. 

2. The History-and- Geography-loving period be- 

gins with the tenth year. 

(a) Histories of the reasonableness of obe- 
dience are required from the tenth to the 
twelfth year. Here belongs the National 
History of the Hebrews. 

(b) Fondness for history concerning the higher 
life, the life controlled by love of God and 
man, is pronounced from the thirteenth 
year, the period of altruism and conversion. 
Here are to be assigned the biographies of 
Jesus and the Apostles. 

3. Desire for rules of conduct, grounded upon the 

authority of common experience is manifested 
by the eleventh year. For two or three years 
Biblical Proverbs and similar sayings are 
more welcome than at any other period. 



INSTRUCTION: ITS FIRST PRINCIPLES. 107 

4. The development of the constructive imagina- 

tion becomes pronounced by the eighteenth 
year. This calls for the study of the dis- 
courses, letters, and ways of working of social 
reformers, such as the Old Testament Proph- 
ets, the Apostles, and Christian leaders since 
their time. 

5. Rudimentary anticipations of the interests which 

dominate later periods of Child development 
are to be nourished as soon as manifested, 
by introducing into the earlier parts of the 
curriculum more or less of the material 
which, as a whole, is reserved for the periods 
when these respective interests become the 
controlling ones. 

6. For this reason, and on account of the extreme 

simplicity of Christ's revelation of God and 
human conduct, stories of Jesus' life and 
teaching should be assigned among the 
earliest Bible lessons for children. 

Instruction must be flexible in Its Methods. 
Method is decided by fixed Educational Principles. 
This does not mean an unchanging method in teaching, 
but just the opposite. The first educational principle 
is adaptation to the pupil's condition, and as this condi- 
tion changes from year to year, there must necessarily 
be like changes in our methods of teaching. In the 
early periods our instruction will take the story form, 
later the stories may become biographies, and then the 
continuity of Biblical history is presented to the child; 
later still, the study of the great moral and spiritual 
forces which have shaped human history should be 
presented. The teacher, who thus varies his method to 



108 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

fit the varying stages of his pupils' development will 
find in this principle a double blessing, he will more 
helpfully touch the unfolding life of his pupils, and 
he will do it with greater comfort and happiness to 
himself. And the suggestion of the right method for 
each and every stage of growth is given to the teacher 
by the questions and comments of his pupils. (Ee-read 
page 103.) 



CHAPTER VIII. 
INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 

"Catechise a child in the way he should go and when he is 
old he will not depart from it." — Proverbs. 

We have now decided three important matters: 
(a) the definite spiritual purpose of our teaching; (b) 
the definite truth and doctrine we are to teach; and 
(c) the definite educational principles which are to 
guide our instruction. In deciding these matters we 
have decided the main features of our curriculum, or 
course of study, which is to-day the most important 
problem in religious instruction. 

Fifteen ^years' study of child nature have made ob- 
solete old systems, which were largely based upon adult 
lines of thought, and adult methods of presentation, 
and have settled the psychological and educational prin- 
ciples upon which modern courses of study must be 
founded ; yet in the field of sacred studies, the curricu- 
lum is still an open question. In presenting to you the 
outline of a definite course of study I do not claim that 
it is either perfect, or final ; I do claim that it is correct 



110 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

in its aim, and that its principles and methods are in 
harmony with the teaching of the best authorities in 
psychology and child nature. 

The Problem of the Curriculum crystallizes the 
whole problem of religious instruction. How can we 
present God's truth to God's child so that it shall be- 
come a part of the child's heart and life? There are 
two inflexible factors in the problem, the unchangeable 
nature of truth, and the unchangeable nature of the 
child at each stage of his growth. 

As Churchmen our task is made both more easy, 
and more difficult by the Church Catechism ; more easy 
on the side of truth, more difficult on the side of the 
child. The Catechism is a doctrinal system, which 
children of eleven years and over, are prepared to under- 
stand. Moreover at that age children desire to have 
some authoritative formula of truth ; but younger child- 
ren cannot comprehend a system, either of religion or 
science, and even God's truth cannot be taught by 
breaking the divine law recorded in the nature of a 
child. Yet it is certainly desirable that children should 
know the main truths of the Catechism before they are 
eleven years old. This is the Churchman's problem of 
the curriculum. Let us consider the problem in each 
grade of instruction. 

Primary Department. The kindergarten grade 
extends from the child's third to his sixth birthday. 
We have called it The Age of Impulse. The impulse of 
growth dominates all others. The child must be doing, 
or he cannot grow. Our duty is not to repress but to 
make educational his activity, even his mischievousness. 
The irritable child is usually the sick child. Fretful- 
ness at this period of growth calls for attention to 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. Ill 

physical conditions, not for punishment. Comfortable 
chairs, pure air, plenty of sunshine (personal as well as 
atmospheric), short instructive periods, alternating with 
singing, these will do much to turn interruption into 
instruction. 

The Child's Emotional Activity is not reasonable, 
but impulsive. It must be utilized for instruction. An 
inexperienced teacher will learn how, by visiting some 
good kindergarten. The child's love and sympathy can 
be developed by their expression in deeds and conduct. 
Curiosity can be transformed into attention. Playing 
in school hours is doing the right thing, at the wrong- 
time; therefore, provide the right time. The wise 
teacher is as much interested in directing the plays as 
the prayers of her pupils, for both, properly used, are 
helps in moral development. 

The Sense Perceptions Dominate this Period. 
The child understands only what comes to him through 
his five senses. His knowledge is gained by seeing and 
handling everyday things. This should be remembered 
in teaching. His imagination at first is almost un- 
controllable; fancies run riot in his growing brain. 
The world of make-believe is often more real to him 
than the world he sees and hears. And the stories he 
tells (which we call falsehoods), are true stories from 
the world of make-believe in which he is living, and 
they should be treated accordingly. 

His religious ideas are few and vague. His power 
of continuous attention is weak, attempts to force it 
cultivate inattention and restlessness. He desires in- 
formation, but also variety and brevity in its imparting. 
His vocabulary is very small, a few hundred words, 
largely the names of things. Phrases familiar to us 
are often strange to him, and need to be explained ; the 



112 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

simple language of home life is the only one he under- 
stands. 

The Spontaneous Interests of the Child centre in 
self, and the things which touch self; namely, the ac- 
tivities of home, and of children. A course of study 
that ignores these interests may have a large truth- 
value, but it has no child-value whatever. His deep 
interest in the grass and flowers, in bird and beast, in 
star, and cloud, and storm, are all calls from the child 
for the teacher to use these objects of God's care to 
teach God's love for little children. His cry of wonder 
at every strange form of life, and movement in a great 
world so new to him, is a cry to his teacher to stop 
preaching and moralizing, and tell him the divine side 
of all that fascinates and frightens him. And his end- 
less prattle about self, mamma and papa, brother and 
sister, is a constant entreaty for his teacher to use these 
subjects in his lessons, and so help him to love God even 
as he loves the dear ones at home. 

This recital of the characteristics of childhood as 
it enters the Sunday School, gives, in brief form, the 
child-factor in the curriculum problem. Now let us 
turn to the truth-factor in the problem. As we all 
know the truth better than we know the child, our state- 
ment can be more brief. 

The truth as it is held by the adult mind is not a 
simple thing, but a complex thing. It is a system, 
made up of many separate truths, each one related to, 
and forming a definite part of an harmonious body of 
truth. We have already learned (a) that the mind of 
a young child is incapable of comprehending a system 
of truth, of any sort; and also (b) that many a separate 
truth, presented simply, is understood, even in early 
childhood. Now as the Church Catechism is made up 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 113 

of separate truths, and as many of these truths are 
capable of being understood in early childhood, common 
sense says : Teach the Child such separate truths as he 
is able to understand; and then, when he is older, teach 
him that the truth he already Tcnoivs is a part of the 
Church's fundamental system of truth and doctrine. 
This is the Churchman's solution of the problem pre- 
sented by the unchanging nature of truth, and the 
ever-changing nature of the growing child. 

The Sunday School Curriculum, which embodies the 
above principle of adaptation will be loyal to the God- 
given nature of the child, and to the Catholic Faith and 
Doctrine of a God-given Church. 

(a) It will present truth topically; i.e., singly, and 
separately (not systematically, historically, logically, 
or theologically) . 

(b) Each separate truth taught will, in reality, be 
a part of the Church's system of truth. 

(c) Each truth taught will be selected to meet the 
actual needs of the child at the age in which it is taught. 

(d) The method of presenting the truth will be de- 
cided by the child's actual capacity, individual expe- 
rience, and spontaneous interests. 

What, then, shall we teach the child first? This 
is really a momentous question. Something must 
come first, and that which comes first into a child's 
mind usually makes the most abiding impression. 
Whatever enters first in order, and time, stands in the 
child's mind as first in importance. Therefore the 
truths which the child "actually needs" are the first 
and most fundamental truths of Christianity; provided 
that he has the capacity to understand them. 



114 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

The first truth of all is God, His being, and His na- 
ture. Can this most important of all truths be taught to 
a little child ? It can, if we employ right methods. We 
cannot teach this truth to a child by spiritual methods, 
or ethical, or logical, or theological methods. To at- 
tempt to do so is to waste our time, and to destroy the 
wayward, but real, religious impulses of the child. 
There is only one door open to us. Ours must be the 
experimental method. We must teach the child to know 
"The Unknown God" through his own limited knowl- 
edge and limited experience. "But the young child 
knows nothing outside of his own home, and dooryard !" 
That is true; therefore in his own home and yard we 
must begin our instruction. This locality is also the 
birthplace of his spontaneous interests. He is in- 
tensely interested in himself, his parents, and his food ; 
his grass and flowers, his leaves, and sand, and pebbles. 
All these touch him, do they not also touch God ? Can- 
not we learn how to use them to build a bridge from the 
heart of this wondering little soul to the heart of his 
Creator ? 

In. actual experience, the teacher will usually find 
that the smallest child in her class already knows about 
God; and that what the child needs is to know the 
nature of God, to know God as his ever-loving Father 
in Heaven. A child is a spiritual being, and as such 
spiritually feels before he can mentally express any- 
thing. No one knows how early a child instinctively 
feels in his spiritual nature that there is a Divine Being. 
It is, however, a sad fact that God is often so grossly 
and materialistically presented to children that they do 
not recognize this theological Deity as the same Mys- 
terious Being they have felt in their little souls. 

The experience of Helen Keller is wonderfully in- 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 115 

teresting in this particular. Born blind, deaf, and 
speechless, she was, after years of patient toil, given a 
knowledge of physical things. No attempt was made 
to impart a knowledge of God lest her materialistic 
conceptions should debase Him. When old enough to 
understand and think, she was taken to Bishop Phillips 
Brooks to be given her first lesson on God. Her face 
showed the deep interest with which the instruction 
was being received. Yet at its close she wrote, "I 
have always known there was a God, but I did not know 
His name." 

Because the child is a soul "made for God," he al- 
ways has in his spiritual consciousness more than he 
can name or interpret. He undoubtedly very early ex- 
periences God-ward emotions of awe, of reverence, and 
of devotion; but, not understanding them, he is likely 
at first to express them in what ive call idolatry, mate- 
rialism, credulity, or fetichism. If he lives in a wor- 
shipful atmosphere, he imitates the devout conduct of 
those around him, and by entering into their activity 
is able partially to interpret to himself emotions which 
earlier he was not able to understand. For these 
reasons, the first thing to teach a child on entering a 
beginners' class, is the words of a simple prayer, such as 
"Now I lay me," and also how to kneel and join in the 
worship of the School. 

The Course of Instruction for beginners must be 
topical and should be on the love, goodness, kindness, 
and power of our Father in Heaven, (a) Our definite 
aim should be the development of a kind, joyous, loving, 
and obedient child. (6) Our method should be in- 
formative, suggestive, and imitative or self -active, (c) 
Our material should be wonder-stories from the Old 
Testament, from the life of Jesus; from nature and 



116 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

classic literature; and may well include the best fairy 
stories from German authors; and stories of childhood 
from real life; with plenty of music,, action exercises, 
and memory material from Bible, Hymnal, and Prayer 
Book. In the use of this material each teacher should 
have a large liberty of selection, for only in this way 
can she adapt her work to her class, usually between 
four and six years old, and also make her material fit 
the needs of individual pupils. 

The first lesson may well be on the power and good- 
ness of God. This and every other lesson must begin 
within the child's experience, and his spontaneous in- 
terests. His food is dear to him, his parents are 
precious to him; and both are the objects of God's 
creative love. You can, therefore, take his food or his 
parents as your point of departure from his little world 
of experience out into the great unknown world of 
creation. The natural steps will be (a) the children 
before you, and who cares for them? (b) Who cares 
for their parents? (c) Who cared for their grand- 
parents? (d) The first father and mother, and who 
cared for them ? Now you have prepared them to under- 
stand your real story, the story of the Creation of Man 
(not of the world). The story must be told as simply 
as possible. Use only those portions of Holy Scripture 
which your children are able to understand. Dwell 
upon these portions : the wonderful beauty of the Gar- 
den (like the thought in His own heart) ; the wonder- 
ful beauty and goodness of Adam and Eve (in His own 
image, i.e., like Himself) ; the perfect happiness of 
Adam and Eve, because of God's goodness. (Their sin 
belongs to a much later lesson.) 

This Bible story may well be followed by an object 
lesson based upon a piece of bread. By frequent ques- 
tioning, and with a bright story to fill all the gaps in 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 117 

the child's knowledge, the life-story of a piece of bread 
can be told. The steps are : the bread, the flour from 
which it was made, the wheat for making the flour, the 
ground for growing the wheat, the planted seed, the 
clouds, the rain, the sunshine — each created by God's 
goodness and power. 

Then other lessons on the same truth should be 
taught by such stories as God caring for baby Moses, 
for the boy Ishmael, of Israel fed in the Wilderness, 
of Elijah and the ravens, of Elijah and the oil and meal, 
etc. In the same way should be told the story of the 
divine side of everything in which the child is already 
interested. The w^ater he drinks, the sugar he eats, 
the flowers he picks, the pebbles he plays with, the sun, 
moon, and stars he admires; the world's creation story, 
the story of the Ark that saved ISToah, the rainbow and 
its promise, the Eed Sea story, the pillar of fire, the 
burning bush, and other like stories should follow. 
Make each story concrete, and complete in itself; make 
no generalizations. But when the child himself says: 
"Why, teacher, God made everything !" you may happily 
believe that your story lessons have not missed their 
mark. 

Bible story and Nature story should follow each 
other, both being used to teach, and re-teach the same 
truth. In nature there is a revelation of God as real 
as the one given in Holy Scripture; and while it is in- 
complete, yet it tells the child plainly much about the 
wonderful things nearest to him. God has not given 
the young child the power to read the Written Eevela- 
tion, but has given him the open picture-book of nature, 
and each day his Heavenly Father turns over a leaf 
and gives him a new picture. Has this truth no lesson 
for us teachers ? 



118 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

About four months of these story-lessons will lay a 
good foundation in the children's minds for their first 
simple memory work in truth and doctrine. Tell, or 
re-tell, the best Bible story yon can find to prepare his 
mind to understand the first petition of the Lord's 
Prayer. The next Sunday explain every word of that 
petition, and then have the children memorize it. In 
the same manner prepare for, and then teach the first 
article of the Creed, and the first Commandment. Pre- 
pare for the latter by stories of missionaries teaching 
poor heathen children (do not dwell upon idolatry, or 
its sin). The children have now begun to learn, and 
to understand the first truths of the Catechism, but 
happily they are not aware of it. The older pupils 
might be able to frighten them if you called it "the 
Church Catechism." ~ 

The children are now ready to learn of God's Great 
Love in giving us His Son. Teach it by stories of The 
Holy Mother at Nazareth, Saint Mary at Bethlehem, 
of the Shepherds, of the Wise Men, of Simeon and 
Anna, of the holy Childhood of Jesus, His manhood's 
love for little children, for Sick Children, for lost lambs, 
for all who were poor, or suffering, or unloved. You 
are now ready by a special story to prepare for, and 
teach the children the second article of the Creed, the 
second petition of the Lord's Prayer, and the first half 
of the "Great Commandment" of Christ, and also the 
twenty-third Psalm, from the Prayer Book. 

The next four months should be devoted to the Duty 
of Obedience. It has of course been touched upon in 
previous stories as opportunity offered. Now all stories 
are to be selected, and told to emphasize this funda- 
mental duty ; which is more sadly lacking among Amer- 
ican children than those of any other nation. Such 
Bible stories as Jesus' boyhood obedience, His obedience 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 119 

at the Jordan, Adam's disobedience in Eden, the 
Heavenly Father's sorrow in Eden and joy at the Jor- 
dan. The obedience of Noah, of Abraham, childhood of 
Moses, of Samuel, of David, the contrasting story of 
Cain and Abel with emphasis on Abel and God's love 
(not penalty), Daniel's obedience, and like stories from 
the Bible and also from the missionary fields of to-day, 
which closely reproduce many Old Testament condi- 
tions. 

Loving and Helping Others may well be the subject 
next presented, following the same method as before. 
Such stories, as : Eebekah at the well, the captive maid 
and Naaman, Ruth and Naomi, the little lad who helped 
feed the five thousand, the Widow of Zarephath helping 
the Prophet, Christ and the Nobleman's Son, the good 
Samaritan, David sparing Saul, Christ at Nain, Christ 
walking on the water to the Apostles — to these may be 
added like stories from the Acts of the Apostles, the 
Lives of the Saints, and the modern Missionary field. 
Memory work may well include the third, fourth, and 
fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer, and the second half 
of Christ's Summary of the Law. These, first prepared 
for by story, then explained, and afterwards taught; 
with previous work reviewed (for what is learned easily 
is forgotten easily), will occupy several months. 

The next few months may be spent on the remainder 
of the Lord's Prayer, each petition being prepared for 
by carefully selected stories, then explained, and then 
taught. Temptation can be illustrated by the testing 
of Daniel, of Joseph imprisoned in Egypt, and of Christ 
in the Wilderness. Some of the simpler hymns for 
children should be explained and taught. Such hymns 
from the Hymnal as 534, 560, 550, 562, 563, 567, 578, 
58, 65, can be easily memorized. Hymns impress the 



120 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

young more deeply than creeds, and we should make a 
larger use of them than we now do. See pages 86-8. 

The final year in the Kindergarten should review 
the more important parts of its work, and then continue 
the work and methods of the preceding two years. 
Stories from the Life of Christ, following the lines of 
the Apostles' Creed, may be the year's subject. The 
course should connect the teaching of the stories with 
the teaching of the Creed. The Holy Ghost may be 
presented (not explained at this age) by the story of 
Pentecost; and in the same way biographical incidents 
and stories of life and worship from the Acts of the 
Apostles, and simple stories of the early saints (not 
martyrs) of the Church will best give the children a 
concrete idea of "The Holy Catholic Church/' When 
the course is finished, the child ought to be able to re- 
peat the Creed, and, within his own natural limitations, 
know what he is saying ; as well as having some idea of 
the great story parts of his Saviour's life among men. 

I have presented this portion of the course of study 
with considerable fullness of detail, because it is con- 
fessedly the most difficult part, and the one on which 
the average teacher will find the fewest Churchly helps. 
And also because it is the most important period in the 
life of the child, and therefore the one in which it is 
supremely important that we should lay a good founda- 
tion for all subsequent studies. 

The Teacher s Preparation for Teaching should be 
all that love, and prayer, and faithful study can possibly 
make it. We may study without teaching, but we can- 
not teach without studying. There are no souls in the 
school so sensitive, and so responsive to every touch, as 
those of the Beginners' class. Your method is a story. 
Your aim is to paint a vivid picture of God's truth upon 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 121 

ihe mind of the child, and so to do it as to warm his 
heart, and move him t? action. Every story yon may 
select has many sides ; the side you want to study is the 
child's side. Every story contains many truths; your 
truth is the one your children most need. We will sup- 
pose that your story is selected. Now, before you begin 
to study it you must definitely answer these questions : 

(a) What am I Going to Tell this Story For? Did 
you ever try to walk a straight line in the snow, or on 
the sand ? There is only one way to do it, we must keep 
our eyes fixed upon our destination, on the end of the 
line; then each step will take care of itself. Knowing 
the purpose of your story-telling you know also the part 
of the picture on which the main emphasis should fall ; 
and also how you will use the secondary truths, and pic- 
tures of the story to emphasize its one main truth. 
Eemember you are preparing to paint a word picture 
which shall give the children a real vision of truth. 
They want it, they like to see things; if not with out- 
ward eyes then with the eye of the imagination. They 
love to live in the "make-believe" ; to make pictures, 
moving pictures, for their own pleasure. They will 
gladly help you to form your picture if you will only 
ask them questions. And what a child sees, story, or 
miracle, or parable, becomes to him a living, and a re- 
membered reality. 

(b) But What Do My Children Already Know 
about this truth I want to teach? They must know 
something about it or there is no use in your telling it. 
A boy picked up an article on the table. "Put it down/' 
said his mother, "that is not for small boys." He 
obeyed, but said : "Isn't there a small boy end to it ?" 
There is no small boy end to metaphysical or theological 
statements. There is, however, always a small boy end 



122 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

to every story; and that is the end with which you must 
make your start. 

(c) What is There in My Children's Life Like the 
Life in the Story ? Children are very imaginative, they 
love a wonder story; yet we must remember that noth- 
ing is wonderful except by comparison with the com- 
monplace in our own lives. The life in the story and 
the daily life of the children must have some things in 
common, and they must be made to see it, or they will 
fail to understand the story. 

(d) What Have They Seen Like the Scenery of the 
Story? Everything happens somewhere. The event 
that happened nowhere, is the event that never hap- 
pened. The more well known scenery and familiar 
background you can use in your story the more vivid 
it will be. 

(e) With What Incidents (like those in the story), 
Are My Children Familiar ? The vividness of the story 
depends upon the number of its "likes." Eecall how 
constantly Christ told of the likeness between the earth- 
ly and the heavenly truth. After we have written out 
the answers to the above five questions, and not before, 
we are ready to begin studying our story. 

Let us take the story of the Creation of Man and 
apply to it the five questions named above. We are 
"going to tell it for" (a) the purpose of making real to 
the children God's power, goodness, and love in creating 
(not "mankind," small children know nothing of gen- 
eralizations) our first parents. Now let us study Gen. 
i. 26 to end, and ii. 7, 8, 9 (first half), 15, 16, and 20 
(first half). But why not all of the first two chapters? 
Because children are not adults. We are to tell only the 
child's side of the story, and that side for one, definite 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 123 

purpose. Everything else at this stage of instruction is 
left out for the sake of unity, and of adaptation to the 
child's limitations. 

Now we read these verses carefully, questioning the 
meaning of every detail; we read them over, and over, 
and over again, until we can shut our eyes and see the 
garden and all it contains. Then we turn to some com- 
mentary for additional information, but only that which 
the children need, and which helps us to think more, 
and see more in the Bible narrative. For what we can 
see, and only what we see, can we make others see. 
(6) Our children "already know" a father, so in that 
way we must speak of God ; they "already know" a gar- 
den, so we must speak of Eden; they know fruit, and 
flowers, and animals, sun, and moon, and stars, there- 
for these must be a part of our seeing, (c) The life of 
the child is like the life of Adam and Eve in its love of 
nature, its love of father and mother, its love of all that 
makes one pure, and good, and happy; these life like- 
nesses we must also see in our Eden-vision. 

(d) Our children have seen in this neighborhood, 
such and such "scenery," i.e., parks, gardens, groves, 
streams, and lakes; those of Eden were "like" them, 
only far more beautiful. These also must be made a 
part of the background of the vision we are preparing to 
give the children, (e) The incidents of our story, like 
their own experience, include men taking care of gar- 
dens, having tame animals, and commanding animals 
to obey them. They have walked in sunshine and wood- 
land, rested in the shade, picked, or seen, flowers and 
fruit, have heard their father's voice in field or garden, 
and were glad to run and meet him. These incidents 
also must be a part of our story. And in speaking of 
them we should also remember that Adam and Eve 



124 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

were in knowledge and experience only children, and 
that all that a pure, sweet, loving, obedient child would 
do we have a right to speak of our first parents doing. 
I was, at first, surprised to find that young children 
usually think of Adam and Eve as children like them- 
selves; yet, in this conception, are they not morally 
correct ? 

Our preparation must include more than we expect 
to use. Children are perambulating interrogation 
points; they will ask wonderfully difficult questions, 
and we must allow them to do so if we want their in- 
terest. It would be like a child to ask : "What does God 
look like ?" It is best to give an answer ; it will neces- 
sarily be a partial truth to meet the child's limitations, 
but it must be correct as far as it goes. A picture of 
Christ as "the Good Shepherd/' is the best to be shown 
as God's image; for older children the first half of St. 
Matt. 28 : 3 is literally true of God's appearance to 
mortal eyes. 

The Teacher s Teaching Plan is not the same as her 
notes of preparation, The notes are mainly for herself, 
the plan is for her pupils. Often the order of the teach- 
ing plan is the reverse order of the teacher's notes. 
Why? Because the notes usually begin at the adult 
end, and the plan must begin at the "small-boy end." 
His end, therefore, must be our introduction, and his 
point of view must decide our method of telling the 
story. Therefore it must be (1) Scenic, picturesque, 
suggestive, so as to appeal to his imagination. It must 
be (2) Dramatic, presented with action, and dialogue. 
It must have (3) Movement, the trend of all its ele- 
ments being towards one pre-determined end. (4) It 
must have a crisis, or climax in which the story culmi- 
nates. And all these we find in our notes of prepara- 



INSTRUCTIONS IN PRIMARY GRADES. 125 

tion. Now let us rearrange them and make our teach- 
ing plan. 

The first thing is to secure a point of contact be- 
tween the truth in our minds, and some truth already 
in the child's mind. If we start off without it, we may tell 
our story but the children will not get it ; they will only 
get the fidgets, and their conduct will prove it. What, 
then, shall be our point of contact ? What shall be the 
link that connects our thought with the child's ? How 
shall we lay a foundation on which to build their inter- 
est in the whole lesson? These are all the same ques- 
tion, and the answer is : Some truth, or thought, or 
emotion already active in the mind of the child. 

We will begin, then, by asking, "How many children 
have a father? a mother? a grandfather? a grand- 
mother? Answering these questions will move their 
thoughts and feelings towards the subject of our story, 
and enable us to announce their title of it, "The Story 
of the First Father and Mother that ever lived/' Now 
(1) we will paint the garden. But first we must find by 
questioning what they know about beautiful scenery 
close at hand, so as to get in all the possible, suggestive 
"likes." Also (later in the story) ask their favorite 
flowers and put them in the picture, with the birds and 
animals. Then (2) we must paint the (unpaintable) 
goodness of Him who made the Garden and all the 
beauty, the outward goodness and beauty of the garden 
being used as the picture and the image of His own 
beautiful thoughts, and pure and holy character. Then 
His wanting to share His garden with others, all the 
beautiful birds and tame animals not being enough to 
fill His heart, His talk with Himself about making man, 
all showing the generosity and goodness of the Heavenly 
Father. Then (3) the creation of man and woman, 
both from dust, and both given a part of their Heavenly 



126 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Father's life; and (4) their perfect happiness with God 
for their Father and Teacher and Friend. 

Make a brief plan of the above on the back of a 
visiting card, and carry it to the class; having it is a 
help. But do not look at it — unless your children get 
so interested, and ask so many questions that you be- 
come so absorbed in them that you lose the thread of the 
story. Indicate, near the middle of the story, where you 
will rest them by instructive activity; e.g., after the 
garden has been painted they can stand, as trees, with 
outstretched branches (arms) protecting the animals 
who seek their shade ; then with upright branches, sway- 
ing in the wind ; and then, as children, they can pick up 
the fallen fruit to refresh them during the last half of 
the story. Put at the top of the card — The Moral must, 
by suggestion, be woven into the story, not tagged on at 
its end. 

The purpose of all instruction is action; therefore 
ask them to re-tell the story at home, and remind them 
that you will ask them to tell you the story on the fol- 
lowing Sunday. The subject of the story, the garden, 
and its contents; the Owner and His character; what 
He did, and its result; each should be the subject of 
separate questions. And no child's answer should be 
considered so perfect that others are not asked to add 
to it. The review will not only help the child, it will 
help you, perhaps more. You may be surprised at how 
well some pupils have grasped your instruction. You 
certainly will be surprised at how poorly or perversely 
your words have been understood by others. What all 
pupils remember well, tells you in what all were most 
interested. If it be the same part which you tried to 
make vivid, it is (in a large measure) the reflection of 
your own interest. If the part which had the most of 
their interest is not the one which most appealed to you, 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 127 

then you will know that yours was not the child's point 
of view, and therefore was (probably) not the best 
point of view for them. 

An Object Story from Nature follows the same prin- 
ciples, and general method of any other story. Suppose 
we are telling "The Story of how our Heavenly Father 
feeds us." We study our chapter from nature in the 
same way, and for the same end, that we did the one 
from the Bible. We plan to have our object ready sev- 
eral weeks ahead, that is all. You make your plan, be- 
ginning not at the Creator (that is the adult end) but 
at the piece of bread (the child's end). Our point of 
contact is secured by such questions as : "What have I 
in my hand?" "A slice of bread?" Tell them what 
it does for their bodies. "What is it made of ?" Tell 
them how many things flour makes for children. "What 
is flour made of?" Pass a bottle of wheat grains 
around the class, and tell how and why it is ground. 
"Where does wheat come from ?" Show a flower-pot of 
earth, and tell how the ground is made ready. "What 
does it grow from ?" Show the seed- wheat and describe 
its planting. (Let them walk around the room, sowing 
imaginary wheat.) "How does it grow?" From your 
prepared flower-pot pull up some growing plants, show- 
ing them the wheat at the root, and describe its growth. 
"What makes it grow ?" Tell of the rain, and the dew. 
"What else does it need to grow?" The sunshine on 
the growing wheat in the flower-pot replies, and helps 
you tell how grass and flowers, as well as wheat, live and 
grow. "What grows from each grain of sown wheat?" 
Have some full wheat ears on the stalks to show to the 
children. (The city teacher will find them at the 
undertaker's.) "Who made the sun?" 

Then on the following Sunday, after the review of 



128 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the story, reverse the questioning : Who made the sun ? 
the rain ? the ground ? the seed ? Who made the man that 
planted the seed ? the one that made the flour ? the one 
that cooked the bread ? Who made us who eat it ? These 
brief outlines will give you a concrete idea of the general 
method. Your own particular method should be de- 
cided by the capacity of your pupils, the nature of your 
story, and your own talents. If you adapt yourself 
to these conditions, you will not tell all your stories in 
the same way. If you are doing so, there is something 
wrong in your method. 

A very helpful teachers' manual, with methods, sug- 
gestions, pictures, and music for this grade is "One Year 
of Sunday School Lessons for Young Children/' by 
Miss F. U. Palmer. "The Story of the Bible," by J. L. 
Hurlbut, will greatly aid the untrained teacher. For 
the teacher's own preparation, nothing is better than 
(verbal) "Picture Work," by Dr. Hervey, to which I 
owe much. On 23d Psalm study "The Song of our 
Syrian Guest" until the Psalm becomes to you a beauti- 
ful mental picture. 

The Primary Grade (age six to nine years) cor- 
responds with the primary grade in the public school. 
It should be divided into two or more classes, according 
to the number and advancement of the pupils. If pos- 
sible, this grade should be separated from the kinder- 
garten, and have its own room and its special educa- 
tional apparatus. 

This is the Age of Imitation. Physical activity 
still dominates the child; even his ideas are not fully 
separated from their objects. For example a map of 
Palestine, four inches by eight, would be likely to give 
him the idea that the country was just the size of the 
map. The picture of a camel, or of any other object 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 129 

which he had not seen, would be more liable to convey 
wrong ideas than right ones. Yet in his relation to the 
human life and activity of which he is a part, he knows 
instinctively much that he does not understand, and 
feels even more than he knows. His mental powers 
have developed, his activity is more intentional, and 
he is more influenced by others. His spontaneous imi- 
tation includes everything, deeds and words, dress and 
manners. 

His moral nature is undeveloped but is wide open to 
suggestion, and example. Interest in others is growing 
rapidly. Also in all things which come within the 
range of seeing, hearing, and feeling. All this is a call 
for special instruction. Imitation rightly directed be- 
comes a power in education. Harmful emotions can be 
led to higher levels, and to religious modes of expression. 
Fear can be softened to awe which, with the addition 
of love, becomes devotion. Selfish anger can be changed 
to righteous indignation for the wrongs of others, and 
hate turned against all that is vile and wicked. 

The Course of Instruction should be topical, follow- 
ing the lines and methods of the preceding grade 
(pages 121-5), but broader, to satisfy the hunger of the 
pupil's increasing mental appetite. His new interest in 
others (in the latter part of this period) calls for les- 
sons in biography which teach new duties to others. 
His growing sense of an authority outside himself, needs 
to be strengthened by lessons on God's authority, and 
human obedience. He is becoming more conscious of 
religious emotions. They are, however, not strong 
enough to stand alone, and should be treated as a part 
of his general moral duty. His sense of the super- 
natural is stronger, the miracle helps him to understand 
God's power. 



130 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Our Educational Appeal can be made to the pupil's 
larger general intelligence; to more reliable sense per- 
ceptions of life, and the things which minister to it; 
to his new moral sense of duty to others ; to his stronger 
imagination which helps him to feel the grandeur of 
God's power, and the beauty and sublimity of His 
handiwork. 

Our Method should be informative, and, still more 
largely, suggestive. A healthy boy does not want his 
teacher to climb the tree and hand him the apples ; the 
boy delights to climb and get the fruit for himself. 
Even if he be too small to climb, he only asks his 
teacher to pull down the limb ; picking the fruit he en- 
joys as much as eating. That is why one truth sug- 
gested by his teacher, and mentally picked by the boy 
himself, is worth more to him than ten truths gathered 
and delivered to him. The child has now come to an 
age when the teacher should teach with authority; not 
his own authority, but that of God's Son, and God's 
Church. 

Our Lesson Material, from nature and the Bible, 
while still topical, may well have more of a serial char- 
acter, a short series of lessons being devoted to a single 
Old Testament biography. In the second year, master- 
pieces from Biblical and other literature may be read to 
the children. The first historical course on the Life of 
Christ may be given in the last year of this grade. It 
should be presented simply, on its human side, and in 
the everyday language of the first three Gospels. Theo- 
logical terminology, or the profound spiritual concep- 
tions of St. John will only mystify the children. Your 
true aim is, not to have the pupils mentally understand 
the nature of Christ, but to have the Saviour enshrined 
in each child's heart. It is better to speak of Jesus as 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 131 

"God's only Son/' it suggests what each child is slowly 
approaching, a loving conception of Christ's divinity. 
Let this, and every like, truth, grow naturally in the 
heart of the child; do not force it. Some day your 
pupil will make glad your heart by the discovery of a 
sublime truth. "Teacher, if Jesus is God's only Son, 
isn't He just like His Father?" "Isn't He also God?'' 
A truth which the child has been led up to, and allowed 
to grow into, becomes a part of his life, for time and 
for eternity. 

The Purpose of Instruction in this Grade is so to 
educate the conscience and the whole moral nature, that 
the child, being impressed with a deep sense of God's 
authority and love, shall become obedient to God, help- 
ful to others, and so, in right doing, find his own happi- 
ness. 

The First Year Stories should teach that God is 
the Father of all; that His Son is the Helper and Sav- 
iour of all, and that He has given His Church and Holy 
Word for all. 

Activity: Outline picture cards to color, or to sew, 
in connection with the stories. 

Memory Work: Psalms 67 and 121, from Prayer 
Book explained and taught; such hymns as 49, 112, 516, 
535, 544, 553. Prepare for Eighth Commandment by 
the story of Gehazi, Achan, and Joseph's brethren; then 
explain and teach it. In like manner prepare for, ex- 
plain, and teach the second, third, and fourth Com- 
mandments ; also teach the names of the historical books 
of the New Testament. 

The Second Year Stories should be on "Persons 
who have walked with God"; that is, the presentation 



132 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

of concrete, individual examples of obedience, right- 
eousness, and helpfulness, which are worthy models for 
the child's strong imitative tendency. 

Memory Work: The names of the historical books 
of the Old Testament and the unlearned names of the 
New Testament books. Also names of the seasons of 
the Christian Year, with reviews of the stories which 
relate the great events which it commemorates. Psalms 
24 and 19. Hymns 11 and 537. The learning of new 
hymns, and canticles should, as far as possible, be con- 
nected topically with the story work. 

Activity: The same as in first year; adding what 
is most important, the actual helping of others. 

The Third Year Stories are on the Life of Christ. 
These should follow each other in chronological order; 
but no attempt should be made to teach the children 
chronology, or the progressive development of Christ's 
work. The purpose of the stories is to make the child 
realize that God's only Son lived His perfect life, wholly 
for others. 

Memory Work: Such doctrinal hymns as 149, 153, 
379, 383, 491, 254. The Beatitudes. The Catechism 
to the Commandments. Everything explained and illus- 
trated before it is taught. 

Activity: In class work, and outside benevolence, 
following the general lines of the second year. 

The Teacher's Preparation for teaching, is the 
same intellectually as in the Kindergarten grades (see 
pages 120-7), with an added care and thoroughness 
of preparation to meet the increased and growing in- 
telligence of the pupils. The child who said her text 
was, "Children, obey your parents, and do it quick," 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 133 

was not as far out of the way as one might think. The 
first part was from the page of God's Word, and the 
other, from the nature of God's Child. We need to 
study both revelations. If you are well prepared to 
teach, you will "do it quick." The teacher who stands 
before her class alert and full of life, will hold the quick 
eyes, quick ears, and restless attention of her children. 

Your children's imaginations are as quick as their 
feet, that is why the girls like fairy stories, and the boys 
wonder books. Eead the books they like and so prepare 
your own imagination to appeal to theirs. Your child- 
ren are very sensitive. You are holding before them 
the highest ideals : the Son of God, the Men who walked 
with God. The children will measure their own con- 
duct by these ideals. They will also measure your con- 
duct by the same standard. It is a shock to a child to 
see, or think, that the teacher does not live what she 
teaches. A certain act may be allowable, but what 
effect will it have on my children? Your children are 
beginning to realize that some things are holy. Utter 
the names of each Person of the Trinity, and speak of 
God's Church, God's Book, God's House, and God's 
Day in such a manner that the children shall naturally 
and unconsciously speak of them with the same rever- 
ence. 

Your pupils are in the public schools five days a 
week — what are they studying there? Pacts, earthly 
facts, materialistic facts, separated and kept apart from 
God, and from all His spiritual, moral, and eternal 
truth. It becomes our duty, therefore, to study the text 
books the children are obliged to study, and to be pre- 
pared to so use the children's material knowledge as to 
counteract the deadening effect upon tender souls of an 
education that leaves God out of the curriculum. We 
must try each Sunday to so supplement and transform 



134 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the week-day teaching of material things that to our 
children, earth and sky, matter and mind shall not be 
godless but God-ful and heaven-ful. And that our child- 
ren, seeing in material things the power and love of 
their Heavenly Father, may joj^ously sing, "0 all ye 
works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and 
magnify Him for ever." 

Helpful Boohs for the Teacher are (by Church- 
men) : "First Lessons on the Church Catechism/' Miss 
Croom; "Teaching the Catechism," Miss Ward (the 
first is for the younger, the second for the older child- 
ren; they are excellent manuals, both in matter and 
method)"; "The Church Year," by the Bishop of Pitts- 
burgh ; "Bible Lessons on the Christian Year," Primary 
Grade, by Dr. Gwynne. Non-Church books : The Pri- 
mary Teacher's Helper on "Old Testament Truths and 
Stories"; the same Helper on "Gospel Stories"; "Bible 
Lessons for Little Beginners," Mrs. Haven (two series). 
These books are good in method and admirable in mat- 
ter ; from them the Church teacher can make selections 
to fit her own course of instruction. The head of the 
department will find Black's "Practical Primary Plans" 
full of helpful suggestions, many of which can be adapt- 
ed to Church methods. 

For the Children there are Bible pictures for a penny 
each, to be studied and explained for a review. Outline 
Bible pictures to be colored. Kindergarten sewing 
cards, including the Commandments, for the younger 
pupils ; and cards to assist in learning the names of the 
books of the Bible. Remember children love pictures, 
and like to make collections; help them to love holy 
pictures, and to make good collections. 

The Teacher s Teaching Methods will follow the 
main lines of the Kindergarten Grade. (Eead pages 



INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY GRADES. 135 

120-7.) The few changes we need to make in order to 
adapt our work to the increased understanding of the 
children, is best discovered by talking with, and study- 
ing the children themselves. 

You will teach the same truth many times, for only 
so will you make a lasting impression; but it must be 
taught by many stories, not by one story, in one old way. 
The teacher said: "I will now tell you a wonderful 
story"; but, a few minutes later, a restless child said: 
"Oh, it* s the same old story of Moses in the bulrushes !" 
Had the teacher asked the children to tell her the story, 
they would have been full of attention, each one eager 
to make an addition to another's imperfect narrative. 

Biblical Geography is one advance which the last 
year of this grade calls for. In our instruction we may 
use small relief maps of Palestine, or small outline 
maps, to be colored and filled in by the children. Or 
we can learn how to make a sand map ; which the child- 
ren can be encouraged to copy on their home grounds. 
This method is the most interesting one for the pupils ; 
they love to see things grow. Take a few minutes each 
Sunday for a special lesson which shall connect the 
land to some of the principal persons, whose life stories 
you have already told the children. Abraham and Lot, 
with the Dead Sea; Jacob with Bethel; Deborah and 
Barak with the plain of Esdraelon ; David with Bethle- 
hem and Jerusalem, and John the Baptist with the 
Jordan. Then do the same for the story of the Christ. 
"Lessons in the Geography of Palestine," Dr. Bradner, 
with Teacher's Aid, is inexpensive and helpful. 



CHAPTER IX. 
MAIN" SCHOOL GRADES. 

"For precept must he upon precept; precept upon precept." 

— Isaiah. 

Junior Classes. Children from about nine to 
twelve years. (Corresponding to the Grammar School 
grades in secular instruction.) This, above all others, 
is The Age of Habit. Up to this time the child's ac- 
tivity has been largely individual, now it becomes social 
activity. The imitative impulse is still strong, and in- 
cludes the words, deeds, ideals, manners, and morals 
of his older associates; and their habits, good or bad, 
soon become his habits. This habit-forming tendency 
is intensified by the rapidly increasing activity of his 
physical senses, and the development of his mental 
powers. Independence in thought and judgment is 
developing; and, happily for the child, and for his 
teacher, there is also an awakening of conscience, and of 
a sense of personal responsibility. 

The General Interests of the child are much broader 
than in the preceding grades, and we must plan to util- 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 137 

ize them. The children are interested in making col- 
lections of flowers, minerals, coins, stamps, and other 
curiosities. It is not difficult to turn this interest to- 
wards Biblical objects. Competitive games and con- 
tests arouse them; so should the effort to surpass their 
old Sunday School records. "Fair play" is constantly 
on their lips in their games. At no other time are they 
so sensitive to injustice, and at no other age will the 
injustice of a teacher do so much moral harm. Their 
new and strong social interests cannot be safeguarded 
by being separated from evil. They call to teacher 
and pastor to provide healthy and elevating social com- 
panionship in Church organizations. 

The Intellectual Interests of the child are increasing 
and widening to keep pace with the brain's development. 
There is a decided interest in reading. This is an ap- 
peal for a good Sunday School library; yes, and even 
more for wise and loving guidance in the choice of books. 
Indirect guidance is best. To say, "Do not read that 
book," or "You must avoid that class of books," is to 
increase the curiosity of the average boy to see what is 
in them. To carefully praise a good book and tell one 
or two of its striking incidents, will excite the boy's 
desire to read it. The boy's interest is grasped strongly 
by everything that belongs to the active, and realistic 
side of life. Personal exploits, biographies of heroic 
characters, history presented as dramatic action and 
adventure, these all unite to create a new interest in 
Bible history and biography. And, through connection 
with them, an interest also in Biblical geography, in 
manners and customs, and in the social and religious 
life of the historical books. This same interest extends 
to stories of pioneering, adventure, and invention, and 



138 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

calls for the use of the records of missionary heroism 
as material for instruction in Christian courage. 

Religious Interest is real, but the child is still in- 
capable of abstract or theological thought. The dark 
and fearful doctrines of sin, and future penalty, are 
not realities to children ; their own healthy lives are too 
full of a happy present, and the hope of a more joyous 
future. Their growing sense of moral responsibility 
gives them an idea of the justice of future rewards and 
penalties, but how to get the most out of to-day domi- 
nates their thought. Careful questioning will show that 
they have grasped the idea of God as a just Judge, and 
are trying to harmonize this new truth with earlier re- 
ligious conceptions. If truth has been forced upon 
them in theological forms, their minds are now apt to be 
filled with all sorts of crude and absurd conceptions, 
which need gentle and sympathetic correction. At this 
period, above all others, we must be very careful not to 
offend one of Christ's little ones. A child ridiculed, or 
treated with contempt between the age of ten and twelve 
receives a blow that he never forgets, and often a moral 
injury that he never fully outgrows. 

The sensitiveness of a child to devotional impres- 
sions, which begins about his tenth birthday, brings to 
him new opportunities; to his spiritual teachers, a new 
and great responsibility. In his earlier years, the wor- 
ship of the Sunday School, and the Children's Church, 
gave him such means of approach to God as he was able 
to understand. If he has been taught in them to wor- 
ship God in truth and sincerity he is now fitted to take 
a new devotional step, to begin his preparation for un- 
derstanding the highest and holiest worship of the 
Church. 

The Holy Eucharist is too sacred a service to be 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 139 

thrust into a child's life before he is fitted, by his ex- 
perience in simpler worship, to appreciate in some meas- 
ure its exalted spiritual character. A child cannot be 
present at a Celebration without his imagination being 
moved, and his mind impressed. If he is a young child, 
or one who has received no home training in habits of 
devotion, it is quite certain that the impression which 
he receives is not the one which the average adult would 
receive. What this service means to a child, depends 
not upon the service's inherent holiness, but upon the 
development of the child's religious experience and per- 
ception. 

"The guests of a summer hotel were entertained one 
evening with recitations by an expert of the platform. 
The children in the front row of seats exhibited varying 
degrees of interest, rising at times to extreme demon- 
strations of delight. Later I found that the poem which 
drew from them the loudest plaudits, was not only one 
beyond their comprehension, but was entirely beyond 
their recall, while another, which had absorbed them 
less, was remembered. In the first poem the only thing 
on their plane of experience was the dramatic action, 
while the latter poem touched them at a point of contact 
with their own lives." (Dubois.) 

This pedagogical principle is as true of the dramatic 
activity of a teacher or preacher, and the devotional 
activity of a celebrant, as it is of the oratorical activity 
of a public reader ; what a child receives from teaching 
of any kind, depends upon the nature and preparedness 
or unpreparedness of the child. 

Bishop Lawrence has well said: "Great as is the 
influence of worthy preaching to children, I am not 
sure that the influence of worthy forms of worship is 
not greater ; for there is in them a strong appeal to that 
most potent of factors, a child's imagination. We, 



140 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

children of the Eef ormation, in our reaction against the 
abuses of teaching by the rites and ceremonies of the 
Church, do not begin to realize the worth and power of 
these rites and ceremonies in kindling the imagination 
of children, and teaching them the truths of the 
Gospel." 

The sacred helpfulness of the Holy Communion is 
too great to be kept out of a child's life after he is pre- 
pared, even in childhood's measure, to perceive the spir- 
itual ideas, and accept the spiritual realities which its 
devotional forms protect and conserve. This devotional 
awakening begins about the tenth year. The earnest 
teacher should watch for it, and be prepared to mold it 
into holy activity. Invite the child to accompany you 
to an early Celebration. In a brief and loving instruc- 
tion, prepare him to understand and follow the Prayer 
Book service. And, as he kneels beside you in the holy 
atmosphere of Christ's blessed service, be sure that your 
own example is such as will help him to feel, and wor- 
ship, even where he cannot fully understand. Surely 
it is better that a child's first ideas of the Holy Euchar- 
ist should come to him from a devout mother or teacher 
than from other children. Thus coming into his life 
in the first hour of his awakening to devotional percep- 
tions, this sacred service cannot but hasten, and help 
prepare him for the time when he also shall become a 
devout communicant of Christ's Holy Church. 

The right Lesson Material is plainly indicated by 
the child's natural interests, and moral needs. He is 
hungry for reality, he wants to be certain. The fairy 
story is fast losing its interest: "Is it true?" is now 
his frequent question. Lessons, and illustrations based 
on the facts of natural science make a deep impression. 
The facts of Old and New Testament History meet the 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 141 

same desire for certainty. Secular and ecclesiastical his- 
tory may well be used for side-lights, or instructive par- 
allels to the characters of Holy Writ. Lessons from the 
dramatic side of missions appeal to the child's growing 
hero-worship, and also give him something more and 
better than he seeks. The Commandments and the Book 
of Proverbs, offer to children of this period the definite 
rules of conduct which they are seeking to shape for 
themselves. And their rapidly developing respect for 
authority, coupled with their desire for definite truth, 
points to this age as the one in which to teach them the 
great facts of the Apostles' Creed. Its doctrines belong 
to the next grade. 

Memory Work should find a place in all lesson mate- 
rial, for at no other age is memory more active. Indeed 
it is doubtful if anyone, except the fully trained man, 
ever again finds memory as receptive as it is now. Se- 
lected passages from the Bible, simple and devotional 
(not dogmatic) collects from the Prayer Book, choice 
selections from the Hymnal, should be used liberally. 
But they must be wisely selected, for even right things 
wrongly used do more harm than good. The selections 
should be those which already have associations in the 
mind of the child; and such as the child now needs. 
The best way to provide for the child's future needs is 
to meet present ones. In every case the main idea of 
the passage should be explained before the words are 
learned. Words without ideas are empty. To require 
a child to learn Bible texts which he does not under- 
stand, in brain or heart, is an unspiritual act, and often 
makes the child dislike the Word of God. The same is 
true of the Prayer Book. There has been too much 
promiscuous learning of the "Collect for the Day." 
Committing devotional words without knowing their 



142 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

meaning is an undevout proceeding; and knowing the 
words of holy prayers and not using them, is an in- 
centive to unprayerfulness. There are many collects 
which a child can understand, and which express the 
desires and needs of childhood; encourage your pupils 
to commit them, and to use them. When the collect is 
not adapted to the needs of childhood, make a selection 
from the Gospel for the day. 

Junior Classes. Course of Instruction. Age 
nine to ten. This is the transition period from topical 
to systematic teaching. The Bible is now to be taught 
not as separate stories, but as sacred history, in which 
the earlier stories reappear in their logical order and 
connection. 

(a) An outline study of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, 
Numbers, and Deuteronomy may be given in the form 
of Biographical Lessons on the prominent characters of 
this period. The purpose of the instruction being to 
emphasize the truth that God guides, and rules His peo- 
ple; blessing the obedient, and punishing the wicked. 
A six months' course. 

(&) An outline study of the Life and Work of 
Joshua, as foreshadowing the Life and Work of Christ. 
A four months' course. 

Missionary stories, and biographies of Alexander 
Mackay, David Livingstone, and like heroic workers 
for Christ. 

Memory Work: The names of the Books of the 
Bible. The Catechism from the beginning to the end 
of the Commandments. The canticles of Morning and 
Evening Prayer. Selected hymns, such as 412, 452, 
505, 507, 540, 522. 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 143 

Instruction: Age ten to eleven, (a) An outline 
study of the Life of Our Lord ; with constant reference 
to the preceding year's lessons on Joshua, and earlier 
lessons on the Creed, to show the unity of Bible and 
Church teaching. (6) Missionary Stories and Biogra- 
phies, Bishops Selwyn, Patteson, and early American 
Missionaries. 

(c) Memory Work: Appropriate selections from 
Proverbs which, in brief form, teach the truths named 
in "My Duty to God" and "My Duty to my Neighbor." 
The Gloria in Excelsis; Psalms 1 and 15, and Hymns 
261, 319, 503, 509, 542, 556, 560, or others like them. 

Instruction: Age from eleven to twelve. Subject : 
God's Church, both under the Old Covenant and the 
New, is a Visible Body, offering to God acceptable wor- 
ship through earthly means. 

(a) Eeview the Life of Moses, with special refer- 
ence to the devotional commands of God, the building 
of the Tabernacle, and the ordering of its worship. An 
outline study of the Book of Judges, and the biographies 
of Samuel, Saul, and David. The Moral Purpose being 
to make clear the truth that right worship, and right 
serving of God results in right living, true character, 
and true happiness; and that neglect of God's worship 
and God's work, results in wrong lives, unhappiness, 
and punishment. Five months' course. 

(i) An outline study of the early chapters of the 
Acts of the Apostles, using the biographies of St. 
Peter and his associates to teach the history, worship, 
and life of God's Church, in Jerusalem, Samaria, and 
Syria. Purpose, the same as above noted. Five 
months' course. 



144 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

(c) Missions, China, Neesima, and Japan; biogra- 
phies and histories. 

(d) Memory Work: The Catechism completed. 
Explain the meaning of the Sacraments (from Holy 
Scripture) before teaching their definition. The loca- 
tion of the offices of the Prayer Book, and the meaning 
of their principal rubrics. The Te Deum. Psalm 122. 

The Teacher's Preparation should include a visit 
to the grammar grades of the public school, and may 
well begin there. The teacher needs to know just what 
her pupils are being taught in material things, in order 
that in her own teaching she may use the same earthly 
things to illustrate God's care and goodness. Incident- 
ally, her visit will please her pupils, and may also 
prove helpful in improving her own pedagogical 
methods. 

The home preparation is much the same as in the 
Primary classes. What is there said of preparing to 
tell a story is equally true of preparing to give a lesson 
in biography or history. (See pages 133-4.) The child- 
ren are now older, more observing, more matter-of- 
fact. They will ask more reasonable questions. They 
want information, they want to be sure; the teacher 
must be well up in all her Biblical, historical, and 
geographical facts; and in the manners and customs, 
social and religious life of the period covered by the 
lesson. A ten-year-old child can master more facts than 
we realize; provided they are well grouped, and vividly 
presented. 

Early in the week read over your lesson and its Bible 
passages to get a general idea of the ground covered by 
your lesson, then let it simmer in a warm corner of 
your mind while you are at work; or in the odd times 
between work, if your labor is mental. Always think of 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 145 

the lesson and the class together, and you will be sur- 
prised to find how many points of contact there are be- 
tween the lesson truths and your pupils' needs. Al- 
ways carry a Sunday School note-book, and while the 
new thought is hot in your mind, burn it into the book. 
Do the same with every illustration you see, or hear. 
Those which you find in your own daily life are far more 
valuable than those another has found and printed in a 
book. In all your preparation keep before you the 
special interests of your children. With each lesson's 
preparation, re-read the general interests, the mental in- 
terests, and the religious interests of this grade (pages 
136-9), until they are so fixed in your mind that you 
cannot forget them. And to them add the individual 
interests of each member of your class, which, if you 
have studied your children carefully and sympathetic- 
ally, no one knows so well as yourself. 

Teachers'' Helps may easily become teachers' 
hindrances. But if we honestly read, study, and think 
over the Inspired Word first, then, after using the 
"help," a second study of the Scriptures will yield a 
still larger harvest of truth. 

Age Nine to Ten: "The Teacher's Manual of Old 
Testament Stories" (Bible Study Union), will prove a 
useful aid. If the pupils' attainments will admit, the 
"Children's Quarterly" may be put in their hands also, 
and home work required. "Teaching the Catechism," 
by Miss Ward, is excellent in matter and method, and 
"The Apostles' Creed," by H. H. Montgomery, will in- 
struct the teacher, and also enable him to send his older 
children to the Bible for farther information. 

Age ten to eleven: "The Life of Jesus Christ" 
(Junior Course), N". Y. S. S. Commission, or "Bible 



146 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Lessons for the Christian Year" (Junior Grade) , by Dr. 
Gwynne, are both good Church text books. The "Teach- 
er's Manual" on the 1ST. Y. Course, is a real aid. "A 
Year with Jesus/' Junior Quarterly, with Teacher's 
Manual (Bible Study Union), will aid the teacher in 
studying the Outline of Christ's Life. The fivefold 
division and analysis given in "How to Study the Life 
of Christ," by Dr. Butler, will prove helpful to the 
teacher. Bishop Beckwith's "Teacher's Companion to 
the Prayer Book" will enable any faithful teacher to 
make the Prayer Book itself the best possible text book 
on the worship of the Church. 

Age eleven to twelve: "Old Testament History" 
(K Y. S. S. Com.), with "Teacher's Handbook," or 
an "Outline of Old Testament History," Junior Quar- 
terly, and Teacher's Manual (Bible Study Union). 
Either of these will prove a valuable help, such lessons 
being selected as are needed to carry out the purpose of 
the course. "Stories of Christian Leaders" (N*. Y. S. S. 
Com.), with "Teacher's Handbook" on the same; or 
"St. Peter and His Training," by Davidson; or "The 
Twelve Apostles," by Milligan; or The Acts of the 
Apostles in The Handy Commentary, will greatly aid 
the teacher. 

The Teacher's Teaching Plans should, first of 
all, remind him of the special opportunities of this 
period, and therefore of the special spiritual purpose of 
his instruction. This is the age of habit-forming, and 
the moral end of our teaching should be the formation 
of holy habits. We must work and pray to form in our 
pupils; the habit of regular private prayer and Bible 
reading. The habit of regular attendance upon public 
worship. The habit of alert attention to religious in- 
struction. The habit of memorizing holy words, and 



MAIN SCHOOL GEADES. 147 

rules of conduct. The habit of clear and exact state- 
ments of truth and duty. The habit of thinking what- 
soever things are pure, good, beautiful, and holy. The 
habit of prompt and perfect obedience to conscience. 
The habit of justice, of doing to others whatsoever others 
are desired to do to us. The habit of working and sacri- 
ficing for others, as the only true expression of love for 
God and man. 

The Basis of Appeal in teaching must also be clearly 
understood. The period is peculiar, and probably more 
deliberately selfish than any other in a child's life. He 
is miserly, hoarding everything he can lay hands on. 
He is a utilitarian. "Does it pay?" is his frequent 
question. There is a God-given side to this. A reward 
for faithful work now counts for much : let it be a good 
book, picture, or something that will bring a moral in- 
fluence into his life. "It pays," for there are God-given 
rewards of righteousness, and it is right for us to recall 
them. He is a natural competitor, the feeling of rivalry 
is strong within him. Yes, and comparison with others 
may be used to develop self-respect, and personal re- 
sponsibility. Comparison with the Sinless One is cer- 
tainly conducive to humility, and the desire to excel in 
righteousness is itself a righteous desire. 

Better yet, we are now able to make a direct appeal 
to the child's conscience; to his sense of justice, and 
honor; to the authority of the Word of God with its 
"thou shalt," or "thou shalt not" ; to his respect for his 
elders, and their larger experience; to his memory of 
past mistakes and what they cost him ; to his own judg- 
ment, and (during the last two years of this period) to 
his own reason. But our moral appeal must not be 
tacked onto the end of the instruction ; that will destroy 
nearly all its power for good. It must be indirect, it 



148 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

must be made a part of the instruction, an inseparable 
part of the lesson's meaning; not something which the 
pupil can listen to, or not, just as he pleases, but some- 
thing which he feels because he cannot help it. There is 
only one condition under which a personal religious ap- 
peal is proper, and that is when the teacher and the pupil 
are sitting side by side, alone. And there are times in 
the life of every child when that condition should be 
planned for, and the direct appeal should be made with 
a prajrerful gentleness, and an intense longing to help, 
and to save. 

The Pupii/s Co-operation should be a prominent 
part of the teaching plan. Good teaching is not preach- 
ing. We must plan for the pupil's self-activity, for co- 
operation between teacher and class. The pupils are old 
enough now to add much to the interest, and helpfulness 
of the lesson. The teacher who does not show that he 
expects home work, and class activity, will never get 
them. We must plan for them in advance. 

The whole three } r ears ? course is historical and 
biographical. Eight teaching methods will make the 
pupils more and more attentive to its lessons as time 
goes on. A week in advance give your pupils the most 
interesting Bible chapters, or selections, relating to the 
hero of the lesson, and get them to promise to read the 
selections right through, just as they would any other 
story, purely for the enjoyment of it. If they come to 
you already interested in, and ready to talk about the 
story, it Avill make it easy for you to deepen their inter- 
est with added information, which will make them see 
and feel its moral side. It was when his followers came 
to Him full of the tragic story of the fall of the tower 
of Siloam, that Christ made them realize that it had a 
spiritual side also. 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 149 

After the pupils have become interested in the stories 
of their heroes, they will become interested in collecting 
information to make the story more complete. Where 
did the hero live? (Geography work.) How related 
to the location of our last story ? Who will draw a map 
of the locality ? What was the condition of the country ? 
Its government? Its religion? What were our hero's 
surroundings ? (Scenery, and background of the story.) 
What were his personal relations ? His civil or Church 
relations ? His real character ? Do you recall reading 
anywhere of any other character that resembles him? 
Who has a picture that will help us to understand the 
story? (The teacher should plan to have at least one.) 
The above or like questions (adapted to the ability of 
the pupils) will help to focus their interest. Each ques- 
tion had better be given to more than one pupil a week 
in advance. Make them feel that you are depending 
on them, and they will not often disappoint you. Kefer- 
ences to the sources of all information desired should be 
given whenever necessary. 

Do not call for too much home work at first. But 
after your pupils have become interested enough to 
bring new information to the class, a note-book should 
be provided for each pupil, in which to record the in- 
formation gained by himself, from others, or from his 
teacher's instruction. The teacher should keep such a 
note-book from the first, and use it in reviewing the 
lesson, being sure to ask questions about every item of 
interest contributed by pupils. After a half-year's work 
of this sort it will not be difficult to find a pupil with a 
good note-book, who will write an outline biography of 
some hero, to be read before the class, after private cor- 
rection by the teacher. To make this work a success 
the teacher should secure the cooperation of the pupils' 
parents. If they will do nothing but present their 



150 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

child with a small Bible dictionary (costing about a dol- 
lar), it will be a great help. Such a book was given to 
me over forty years ago, and its great helpfulness, and 
even its faded brown binding, are still affectionately 
remembered. 

The teacher's plan should be like a good rubber band 
— small in size but excellent in quality; very elastic, 
and so able to meet every reasonable demand. It should 
bring to the class all the information which the pupils 
need, and cannot, or do not bring. It should be able 
to omit everything that the children can find out for 
themselves, or that can be brought to their recollection, 
or their understanding by wise questioning. In the 
recitation, take up first the children's contributions to 
the lesson material, and select from it some incident, 
fact, or truth which best connects the far-off life of the 
hero with the life of to-day. Make this connecting link 
your point of contact by which the lesson story and the 
class are to be connected by a common interest. Have 
one and only one, main truth in the lesson, using all 
other truths to strengthen or illuminate it. This gives 
unity to the lesson and definitiveness of impression to 
the children. Within this unity make each division dis- 
tinct. Is you subject the Life of David? Your di- 
visions may be: (i.) The Shepherd Boy. (ii.) The 
Shepherd Warrior, (iii.) The Shepherd King. But it 
would be better to devote a whole lesson to each division, 
provided that you have secured the interest of your 
class. 

Your lesson cannot be finished during the School 
hour. Its end is not new truth, but new conduct. If 
your class work is successful, you will see some small 
token of it in the lives of your pupils; and also in the 
life and work of their teacher. We cannot really teach 
others without teaching ourselves. We cannot improve 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 151 

our teaching unless we sit down with our plan at home, 
after the recitation, and go over it again to see wherein 
we did well, wherein we did poorly ; and then, refuse to 
be satisfied until we have found the cause and the cure 
of our failure to help the immortal souls committed to 
our care. 

Middle Classes. Pupils from twelve to fifteen 
years: (Corresponding to the last two years of the 
Grammar, and the first two years of the High School 
grades, in secular instruction.) This period we have 
named The Age of Moral Crisis, for during these years 
the child enters upon the first stage of adolescence, 
upon what is morally and spiritually the most critical 
period of his life. His feelings overbalance his judg- 
ment; his emotions are stronger than his will. The 
dominance of the physical and emotional nature usually 
makes this period one of timidity or recklessness, of 
vacillation or excess. His individuality is rapidly devel- 
oping, he has a keen conception of self-importance and 
self -ability ; he has no desire to be an angel, or a saint ; 
he wants to be a hero; something of the blood and 
thunder sort. 

Yet it does not follow from this that a girl of four- 
teen, or a boy of fifteen must be permitted to sow a crop 
of wild oats and reap the harvest of bitter regret. It 
does follow that all that our experience has taught us, 
and all that our Christian love and sympathy can sug- 
gest to us, should be done to hold before our pupils as 
sacred a conception of manhood and womanhood as is 
enshrined in the Christian Covenant. Never again in 
the life of the child will the selection of matter, and 
method of instruction be so important as they are during 
this period of mental transition and moral crisis. 

General Interests are now becoming more compre- 



152 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

hensive. Nature, art, the world's work, social life, and 
(towards the close of the period), religion also claims 
a share of our pupils' thoughts and attention. He may 
not speak of his new interests, yet they can be seen in 
his dress and conduct. His desire for information is 
strong; his frequent silence comes from pride, not lack 
of interest. He is anxious to know how his elders have 
acted, thought, felt in the great affairs of life; but the 
information must come to him as a young man, not as a 
boy. Yet he is a boy, at an age when "a boy's will is 
the wind's will." All of which is a call for us to give 
definite ideals of life, and stimulating ideals of duty. 
Yet if we state them didactically, we wound the sensi- 
tive pride of his approaching manhood. He wants to 
find out things for himself; therefore suggestiveness in 
material, and indirectiveness in application, are essential 
to effective teaching. 

Intellectual Interests are those of the age of chivalry. 
For him the greatest thing in the world is daring and 
heroic action. He is reading about them, he is dream- 
ing of them, and both in his reading and his dreaming 
he is preparing the way for instruction in Christian 
fearlessness, and Christian heroism. He pictures him- 
self a glorious general, or a daring robber ; a millionaire, 
or an heroic defender of the poor and helpless. A girl 
of fifteen said, "I like to go off alone and imagine that 
I am some great person." Our selection of lesson ma- 
terial should help to make these imaginings true in a 
higher, and nobler sense than they were dreamed. 

Religious Interests and Ideals become definite to- 
wards the close of this period, and by wise methods of 
instruction can be made strong and active. Yet of no 
other interests is pride so likely to keep a boy silent as of 
those which concern his inner life. He is fast discard- 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 153 

ing the childish ideas, and credulities of his early years ; 
and in discarding them, he may also throw overboard 
some of childhood's unquestioning faith. Yet con- 
science is now stronger than ever, and his doubts are, 
in reality, the questionings of a growing mind. He 
is thinking his own thoughts, and creating his own 
ideals. He believes in heroes, not in hermits. To him 
the conventional saint is sentimental, or sour-faced, and 
is the last being he desires to become. The religion that 
attracts him is not one of dogma, but one of activity. 
Its ceremonial and its ethical energy both appeal to him. 
He likes a varied and beautiful service ; he desires rules 
of conduct that are clean-cut, definite, practical, to meet 
the needs of a boy's week-day temptations. He may 
not live up to his own ideals, but he expects others to 
live up to theirs; and if they do so, he respects, and se- 
cretly honors them, and will allow them, and them only, 
to influence his life and conduct. 

About the age of fourteen or fifteen, our pupil's in- 
terest in private prayer needs to be strengthened. It 
must be done with devout carefulness, or we may do 
more harm than good. I know of no better method 
than that of a young teacher of boys, whose statement 
I condense: "One week before a talk on Prayer, and 
before I have announced the subject, I hand each boy an 
envelope, saying the contents are confidential, and that 
I know he will comply, as a personal favor. In each 
envelope is a note, saying that I am subject to certain 
temptations (unspecified), that I find my duties at 
times hard, and that I am liable to discouragement. I 
request that, in saying his evening prayers, he will men- 
tion me to the Heavenly Father, and will continue this 
until our next meeting. I add, that by carrying out 
this request he is helping me more than he can fully 
understand. 



154 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

"It is remarkable how the boys, aged from fourteen 
to seventeen— a time when many boys who have been in 
the habit of daily prayer are gradually relinquishing it 
— respond to this personal request. Without asking, I 
discern by the warmth of their greeting, or by some re- 
mark, that they are responding to what is, in most 
cases, an entirely new conception of private prayer — 
that of praying for someone outside their own family. 
In some eases boys who have already discontinued daily 
prayers, are led to resume them. 

"When the day comes for the talk on Prayer, all are 
better prepared to listen and learn from it what I am 
able to offer. As I have not neglected to bear them in 
mind daily, a sympathy springs up between us which 
was not apparent before. A channel to the boy's soul 
has been opened. 

"When I have again arrived at the talk on Prayer, 
with a new group of boys, I make the same confidential 
request of them. Furthermore, I remind the last year's 
pupils of the time when I made the request of them, 
and ask that now they pray in the same way for the 
boys (each mentioned by name) who are, within a week, 
to have the same talk on Prayer. In this way 'the grad- 
uates' renew their grasp on what I had told them before, 
and I myself am doubly inspired to do my utmost for 
the spiritual benefit of all the boys." 

Such a method is far-reaching in its results, be- 
cause the teacher gives himself to his pupils. It not 
only increases a boy's interest in his own prayers, in the 
need of them; it also teaches him how to be unselfish 
in his devotions, it enlarges his idea of what prayer is 
in the private life of a Christian. 

The Best Lesson Material is plainly indicated by the 
pupils' dominant interests and peculiar needs. Prob- 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 155 

ably more than any other this is the age for biographical 
studies. It may well include Old and New Testament 
characters. Selected biographies from Church history, 
and from the world's heroes; including Christian dis- 
coverers, pioneers, inventors, and warriors; also the 
scenic and realistic aspect of Inspired and Christian 
history; studies in the Age of Chivalry, and, above all, 
studies in the character, teaching, and work of Christ. 
The memory work of the preceding grades should be 
continued. 

The Course of Instruction should certainly keep 
before the pupil the great truth that God's laws are the 
expression of His love, and are supreme, both in His 
world and in His Church. And before his own mind 
the teacher should keep this truth : The purpose of all 
my instruction is the development of a manly, moral, 
reverent, and fearless pupil, whose spiritual hero is the 
fearless Man of Nazareth, the Divine Man of Calvary. 

Age, twelve to thirteen, (a) The biographies of 
the Books of Kings and Chronicles, studied together. 
Text book, the first half of "Bible Lessons on the Old 
Testament/' by Gwynne, Middle Grade ; or, "Great Men 
of Israel" (Bible Study Union), with "Junior Quar- 
terly" for pupils, and its "Bible Study Manual" for 
teacher. 

(5) Second half-year, "Christ and His Teaching." 
Text book, the first half of "The Teachings of Jesus, 
Christian Ethics for Juniors" (N. Y. S. S. Commis- 
sion) ; or, first half of "Bible Lessons on the Christian 
Year," New Testament, Middle Grade, by Gwynne. 
The Prayer Book, its doctrinal and devotional teaching. 
Text book, "Common Prayer." Teacher's manual, 
Bishop Beckwith's "Teacher's Companion to the Prayer 
Book." 



156 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Memory "Work. The General Confession, and a re- 
view of the work already done on the Bible. With such 
collects as Fourth Epiphany, Second Lent, and All 
Saints. 

Missions. Bishop Hannington, and Africa. 

Age, thirteen to fourteen, (a) Topic : "Christ and 
His Teaching." Text book, the second half of "The 
Teachings of Jesus, Christian Ethics for Juniors" (N". 
Y. S. S. Commission) ; or, Topic : The Great Prophets 
as Obedient Servants of God. Second half of "Bible 
Lessons on Old Testament," Middle Grade, by Gwynne. 

(&) Second half of year. Topic : The Great Apos- 
tles as Obedient Servants of God. Text book, "Bible 
Lessons on the Acts of the Apostles," Middle Grade, 
Gwynne. The Senior Grade quarterlies of this series 
will help teachers to a better understanding of the lower 
grades. 

Prayer Book study should be continued along the 
lines of Bishop Beckwith's "Teacher's Companion." 

Memory WorTc should include the Collect for the 
Second Sunday in Advent, with those for the Ninth 
and Eighteenth after Trinity ; and a review of the Cate- 
chism, its words, and its meanings. 

Age, fourteen to fifteen. The whole year may well 
be spent on "The Life of Christ as the Founder of a 
Kingdom." Text book, A Harmony of the Gospels, 
made by the pupils, as set forth in the teacher's manual, 
"How to Study the Life of Christ"; or, text book, "The 
Life of Jesus Christ, the Messiah" (K Y. S. S. Com- 
mission) ; the teacher using Dr. Butler's manual, cor- 
recting the divisions of Christ's Ministry, and emphasiz- 
ing the truth of the Kingdom. The Prayer Book 
should be studied for its doctrinal and spiritual teach- 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 157 

ing. The teacher's best aid, in addition to her "Com- 
panion/' is "A Manual of the Book of Common Prayer/' 
by Norris. The offices of Holy Baptism, Confirmation, 
and Holy Communion should have special study in this 
grade. 

Memory Work. Collect for Grace, for Fourth Sun- 
day after Easter; Fourth after Trinity; Seventh after 
Trinity; and Twelfth after Trinity. 

Age, fifteen to sixteen. This age properly belongs 
to the next chapter, and its work will be considered 
there. It is difficult to hold boys over fifteen in the 
Sunday School except in Bible classes for adults. (See 
page 58.) For the Schools which are able to retain 
such pupils, we add the following year's work in the 
Acts of the Apostles. "St. Paul, and the First Christ- 
ian Missionaries" (N. Y. S. S. Commission). Teach- 
er's Manual on same, by the Eev. Pascal Harrower ; or, 
"The Church in the New Testament," by the Eev. E. L. 
Cutts. It is important that the teacher's "help" in 
this course should be Churchly, and worthy of the 
importance of the study. 

Memory Work. Collects for Nineteenth Sunday 
after Trinity; Twenty-first after Trinity; and Aid 
Against Perils. 

The Teacher's Preparation, in the main, will 
follow the methods already presented under "Junior 
Classes." We cannot afford to be ignorant of what our 
pupils are being taught in the public school, par- 
ticularly about God's laws, and God's Church. Eoman 
influence is felt in all school boards. The beneficial 
results of home-help, and pupils' self-activity are even 
more valuable in this grade than in preceding ones. 
(See pages 148 to 150.) 



158 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

You may have the same class that you had two 
years ago, yet you have not the same pupils; they have 
changed so gradually, however, that you may not realize 
it. The most important changes for the educator to 
study are those which begin between the ages of twelve 
and sixteen. You need to re-study each pupil, for al- 
though all have changed, yet each has changed differ- 
ently. Now above all times, good teaching means fit- 
ting the lesson to each separate pupil, and leading him 
to appropriate and use it. 

Adaptation demands a new study of self. Nothing 
is more easy than to drop into a rut and stay there. We 
all have our likes and dislikes ; but to show them now is 
to do untold harm. Every adolescent is a bundle of con- 
tradictions, and each pupil is a new species of contra- 
diction. It will be very strange if some of them do 
not irritate, and almost inflame you. Eemember, how- 
ever, that the most exasperating pupil is probably the 
one who most deeply desires your love and sympathy; 
but his fear of your discovering it, and his morbid 
pride, drive him to contradictory actions. 

The Teaching Plan may have many excellencies, yet 
it is not really a good plan unless it includes something 
from the Lessons, Epistles, or Gospel for the day. It 
would be a strange Sunday service that added no truth, 
illustration, nor inspiration to your lesson notes. Your 
boys and girls ought to be regular worshippers in the 
Church; they now think their own thoughts, as well as 
the preachers. If the Scriptures for the day emphasize 
the lesson truths, make full use of them. If the teach- 
ing of the pulpit seems, to youthful ears, to contradict 
anything in your lesson, then bring out the real unity 
and harmony of God's truth. 

You are beginning to study a new book of the 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 159 

Bible. Bead the whole book through, more than once, 
before you begin to make your lesson plans. You are 
not ready to plan parts until you have grasped wholes. 
Adolescents are trying to get away from fragments, and 
particulars and to grasp wholes. If our pupils seem to 
be trying to corner, or contract us, it is probably their 
perverse way of asking for additional information. 

Our plans must be characterized by fulness, ac- 
curacy, and thoroughness. Our pupils expect us to 
know the lesson better than they do, and they are right. 
We are instructing would-be critics ; to be more accurate 
than our critics, is to keep them in the seats of the 
learners. They need to be taught the value of thor- 
oughness, particularly in the study of divine truth. 
This does not mean attempting to present everything 
in a lesson. It means by thoroughness of treatment 
making more emphatic the one truth which we count 
the most important for the class. 

For example: in the story of the Magi, we might 
dwell on their journey as an expression of faith ; on the 
conduct of the chief priests, as an expression of indiffer- 
ence ; on the conduct of Herod, as an example of hostil- 
ity to Christ ; on the adoration of the Holy Child, as a 
foreshadowing of the Gentiles entering His Kingdom. 
But we cannot do this and teach thoroughly. It means 
four separate truths, and four diverse lessons, where 
only one can be effectively taught and remembered. 
The true way is to plan to present thoroughly the one 
truth, and lesson of faith, using the other facts of the 
passage to emphasize it. Our lesson will then be on 
The Compelling Power of Faith — seen in (a) The long 
journey of the Magi; (b) Their persistent questioning 
at Jerusalem; (c) Their glad adoration at Bethlehem. 
If time permits, we might make more prominent the 
last two examples of faith by contrasting them with the 



160 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

power of un-faith, as shown by the conduct of the chief 
priests, and Herod. In either case our plan is a unit. 
Will not this unity of truth and lesson add to its im- 
pressiveness ? 

The Co-opebation of the Pupils is Indispensa- 
ble. We must make them responsible for the success of 
the class. We must plan to do nothing that we can get 
our pupils to do. We must tell them nothing which 
they can find out for themselves, or that we can draw 
out of them by wise questioning. The pupil's home- 
work, note-books, pictures, and preparation of class 
papers, is now more important than ever. 

Educational material and methods should be se- 
lected for those who are now the oldest, and most rest- 
less pupils in the Main School. For example, we desire 
to secure the cooperation of a class of boys in the study 
of the biographies of the Kings, or Prophets of Israel 
and Judah; the lives of the early Apostles, the life of 
St. Paul, or, better yet, of the life of Christ. If pos- 
sible, we should secure a separate room; if not, then a 
corner of the school room should be screened off. This 
will allow greater freedom for restless pupils, and cor- 
responding activity on the part of the teacher. 

The boys are sure to do something; our plan is to 
make their doing instructive. Every boy has an inex- 
pensive blank book, the teacher has a supply of pencils. 
Carefully selected sets of pictures for each pupil, cover- 
ing a half-year's work, can be purchased for ten cents 
a dozen. Or, what is better, where it can be afforded, 
a series of stereoscopic photographs for each boy, is 
hired. The pictures, with few exceptions, should be 
photographs of natural scenery, views af the actual 
Biblical localities mentioned in the lessons. Every pupil 
needs a copy of each picture for personal study, and for 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 161 

the illustration of his written story of the life of Christ. 
A small map of Palestine, in relief, upon which 
boundaries, towns, and journeys can be marked in ink, 
should be purchased by each pupil. 

The teacher (with a copy of "How to Study the 
Life of Christ") can plan the lessons, select the pic- 
tures, give to his pupils the portions of Scripture for 
home study, and (when possible) for the construction 
of a harmony of the Gospels ; also he should select the 
subjects for special papers to be read before the class. 
(Other helpful books are named in Chapter XIII.) 
So much for plans. The success of the building de- 
pends upon the teacher. If he really sympathizes with 
adolescents, and if he loves God's truth, he cannot fail 
of ultimate success. 

It is always helpful for us to study the methods of a 
successful teacher; provided, that our mental attitude 
is not, "What did he do?" but, "Why did he do it?" 
Here is an account (condensed from the Sunday School 
Times) of the method of a successful worker with boys, 
Dr. W. B. Forbush: 

"I slipped into the back of the room ; the door closed. 
The seventeen boys ranged from fourteen to eighteen 
years, and were just as noisy, and restless, interested, or 
uninterested — according to circumstances — as any boys 
of that age. There was no attempt on the part of the 
leader towards repression. It was not a mother's meet- 
ing, it was a boys' class, and that fact was not lost sight 
of for an instant by the tactful leader. 

"When, for instance, another visitor said he had in 
his hands some stones from the Sea of Galilee, and the 
boys sprang from their chairs and crowded around him 
to examine them, the leader made no attempt to check 
this. Why should he ? Is it not a natural and proper 
impulse to cross the room in order to examine some- 



162 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

thing that bears on the lesson? And if, being boys, 
they cross the room impetuously, is that a sin? The 
doctor did not think so, nor did he have any difficulty in 
taking up the interrupted lesson again, after his boys 
were seated. I did not once hear the word "don't" cross 
the leader's lips. 

"He began with, 'Harry, will you take the offering? 
Aleck, just take that box of pencils and pass them'; 
I noticed that each boy had a blank book of his own. 
'We want to hear the first chapter of the Life of Christ, 
which was written last week by Charlie Dodge,' said 
the doctor. The rest followed their own books, while 
Charlie, whom I noticed as one of the most irrepressible 
of the seventeen, read, in his own words, his chapter. 
'Now let us hear Lawrence read the third chapter in our 
imaginary journey in the footsteps of Christ.' This 
time the other boys listened, having nothing in their 
own books to follow. 

" 'That's very good,' said the leader, as Lawrence 
finished a vivid word-picture of their journey in Bible 
lands. 'To whom shall we give the journey for next 
Sunday ? All right, Lester ; see what you can write on 
what you see in the pictures. Take your books and 
write Lesson IV. and where to find the material: St. 
Luke 3 : 1-20; St. John 1 : 19-27. Clifford will report 
next week on who were some of the noted men while 
Christ was living.' 

"Then another boy made a report as to what sort of 
food Jesus probably used, and what games He may have 
played. When jocular comments were made, they were 
instantly taken up and used by the leader. He had 
asked what food was in the bowls that they had seen. 
'Mush and milk,' sang out one; general laugh followed. 
'Well, it wasn't quite as moist as that,' was the leader's 
answer, as he smiled with the rest. 'It was more a dry 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 163 

bread, with a sort of beans, or lentils/ The boys saw 
the real similarity, and at once sobered down. 

"The doctor drew a couple of horizontal lines on the 
blackboard. We'll let this upper line represent the 
lifetime of Christ, the first thirty years shown by the 
long division, and the closing three years by the short 
division at the right-hand end. The life of John the 
Baptist began six months earlier, so we'll start the lower 
line joist a little to the left. His public ministry began 
a little earlier than Christ's, so we'll mark that accord- 
ingly; and he died a year earlier. Draw that diagram 
in your books, and then put down the names as I have 
them.' The doctor rapidly explained in this way, as he 
wrote on the board, drawing out some of the facts by 
questions. Connecting John the Baptist with the 
prophets, the boys were asked wherein John and Elijah 
were at all alike. Interesting comparisons were made. 

" Will, please get the stereoscopes ; George, get the 
photographs ; and, Sidney, you collect the pencils.' The 
leader hastily sketched on the board a rough outline of 
Palestine, locating the Jordan, and the Sea of Galilee. 
'Now, boys, just look at the map a minute so as to get 
your points of compass. This is where you are stand- 
ing, looking toward the northeast.' And he drew a 
little mark on the map, locating the point from which 
the photograph in the boys' hands had actually been 
taken. 

"Then came the most interesting feature of that 
day's work — the close, exhaustive study of the photo- 
graph which every boy had in his stereoscope, accom- 
panied by a rapid-fire question-and-answer comment 
by the leader and boys on what they found there. Only 
two pictures were used, and the most of the study was 
given to the first picture, which showed the marvellous 
gorge of the Brook of Cherith, and what is called to-day 



164 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the Elijah Convent, in Palestine. As the boys' heads 
were in the hoods of the stereoscopes, and their eyes 
glued to the wonderful picture that stood out there in 
startling perspective, they and the leader talked over 
the picture and the lesson. A characteristically dressed 
Arab was standing in the foreground, firing his long- 
barrelled, deadly looking rifle. The smoke from the dis- 
charge was floating lazily out over the great gorge, and 
gave one a hint of the depth and extent of that vast 
ravine. 

"The leader drew from the boys their thoughts on 
the prophet John the Baptist, who, perhaps, had trod, 
twenty centuries before, the very ground they were 
looking at. He was a dark-skinned, solitary man. He 
didn't talk very much. Would he flatter you ? No ! 
'You're vipers/ he said to some. He spoke right out. 
He used homely illustrations — 'the axe is laid to the 
root of the trees/ 

"The leader showed on the blackboard-map the spot 
where Jesus and St. John met, and where Jesus was 
baptized. 'Your next picture will show you this — it's a 
view of the Jordan,' he said. Just a word, but enough 
to make them all eager, with eyes and wits sharpened. 
And then, as they put the next picture into place, and 
studied it, he described it to them. 'You see, this 
is the Jordan as it actually is, not as it is in hymns and 
stories.' The photograph shoAved a baptism taking 
place, and several Orientals looking on in characteristic 
attitudes of curiosity. 'Why was Jesus baptized? Be- 
cause He was sinful?' 'No.' 'He was interested in 
John.' 'He wanted to do Himself what he asked every- 
body to do.' 

" 'Give to Justine the pictures of the baptizing, and 
to Lester the pictures of the desert. Aleck, will you 
write on St. John for next Sunday? Lester, on our 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 165 

journey as shown by to-day's pictures?' And so the 
forty minutes of class work passed all too quickly for the 
boys, as well as for me. I had learned some of the 
secrets of this man's success with boys. He was their 
companion, while not less their leader. He forbade 
nothing that was in itself natural on their part, even if 
it was unconventional. He guided and restrained them 
just as far as was really necessary, not a bit farther. 

"He says of the picture part of the study, that he 
tries to 'keep the boys' heads in the hoods' of the stereo- 
scopes, so that their interest is kept on the picture. If 
the heads come out, he will say. 'As you see' — calling 
attention to some detail in the picture, and back they 
go. But the picture study is no mere pastime. It is a 
rigid study of the Bible lesson, and serves to make the 
lesson, in its actual setting, a living reality. 

"Again, he carried the lesson study as far as needed, 
and stopped when the interest was keen. What a secret 
of successful teaching that last is ! How its observance 
would revolutionize the spirit of interest in some classes ! 
Every teacher can, and every teacher ought, to delib- 
erately plan to conclude each Sunday's teaching in that 
way. Save your best thing for the last. Stop when 
they wish you would go on. Then they'll want to come 
again, or, better still, they'll think and study on the 
lesson during the week. 

"The boys themselves are given constant responsibil- 
ity in passing or collecting pencils, or pictures, or in 
preparing a chapter of the imaginary journey, or a 
biographical sketch. It is not the leader, but the class, 
that does the work. The boy to whom a special piece 
of writing is assigned, is on his honor before the class. 
If he hasn't prepared it when Sunday comes, he is likely 
to stay away rather than come unprepared. But he will 



166 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

have it the next Sunday, for he knows that it will be 
expected from him until he delivers it. 

"In addition to the few assigned tasks, every boy 
makes his own book, week by week, and chapter by 
chapter. All this involves regular attendance and at- 
tention, and the doctor gets both. Better still, a boy 
is rarely in the class more than a year or two without 
openly confessing Jesus Christ." 

The Basis of Appeal has lost little that belonged 
to earlier years; it has gained much. Imagination is 
active. Our pupils stand on the threshold of a new life, 
of which they dream dreams, and see visions. Hope is 
so strong that everything seems possible when they shall 
have come into the full powers of manhood and woman- 
hood. And everything that is worth attaining is pos- 
sible, with God's help. Appeal to their highest ideals. 
It's a youth's ideals that shape his career, and decide 
his character. If the younger son in the parable had 
not allowed a deluding imagination to create false ideals 
he would not have become the prodigal. If suffering 
had not transformed his ideals, he would never have 
cried, "I will arise and go to my father." 

Hold before your pupils the noblest aspects of life, 
and help them to create inspiring ideals, and to be- 
come all that God created them to be. Conscience is 
active. Your pupils want to do right, most of them are 
trying to do right, they feel keenly the sting and shame 
of their sins, even when they refuse to confess it; or 
their pride pretends indifference, or recklessness. Al- 
ways take it for granted that they are striving to keep 
conscience pure, make your appeal on this ground, and 
you will help them to do the noble things they secretly 
long to do. 

Beason and will have become positive forces in the 



MAIN SCHOOL GRADES. 167 

shaping of their conduct and character. They are try- 
ing to think out the problems of life. If passion has 
caused them to leave the track of truth, and life's train 
is in danger of damage or wreck, it is reason that must 
be called to man the brakes, and strong, though way- 
ward will that must be aroused to pull the train into a 
place of safety. Talk to them, not as children, but as 
men and women. If the general appeal in the class is 
not sufficient, plan for a good talk in some cosy corner 
of your own room, and they will respond. 

Love of what is right and what is worthy, is becom- 
ing an important motive in their actions. "It is not 
just"; "I hope you have a higher motive than that"; 
"It is unworthy of you," is sufficient in most cases. 
It is not rebuke for wrong, but inspiration for right, 
that is needed, and the realm of biography in which 
you are working, furnishes hundreds of shining exam- 
ples. Know your pupils, know their hopes and ideals, 
and select your illustrations and appeals accordingly. 

Longing for manhood and womanhood, and for 
a prominent and heroic career, lies close to the heart 
of every healthy young person. To help them to enter 
into the feelings and experiences of the best men and 
women the world has known is the true office of the 
study of biography. There is nothing which our pupils 
need, no truth, nor lesson, no rebuke, nor incentive, nor 
inspiration which is not found in the lives of the great 
men of God's Church and God's Word. It is ours to 
make the most of our opportunities. 

Eemember, however, that while all of these doors of 
"appeal are open, and some of them wide open, most of 
them are concealed by some curtain of diffidence, or 
heavy hanging of pride. If through them we are to 
enter into the longing, yet shrinking heart of the 



168 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

adolescent, our approach must be tactful and sympathy- 
full. 

The study of human life is of deepest interest to 
the adolescent. In it they catch glimpses of the mys- 
teries of that longed-for maturity on whose threshold 
they are standing; and because their expectant minds 
are on the watch for a revelation of deeper and nobler 
things, they are prepared to be interested in the one 
Perfect Life of history, the one Life which has revealed 
to the souls of men their sublime possibilities, and the 
one Way of attainment. Our prayer may well be for 
light and help to so present Jesus of Nazareth to our 
pupils that in Him they shall see the realization of their 
ideals, and of their longings ; the worlds grandest moral 
hero, the soul's sublime Saviour. 



CHAPTEE X. 
INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 

"When I became a man I put away childish things" 

—St. Paul. 

Bible Class work, rightly conducted, is the most 
spiritually fruitful of all parish agencies. In its power 
to lead souls into communion with Christ, the pulpit 
falls far behind the Bible class, or the Confirmation 
class. The chief value of the pulpites long-range teach- 
ing is to prepare the way for personal, face-to-face in- 
struction in the class. The early ministry of most 
clergymen is crippled by the neglect of our seminaries 
to make catechetical and Bible class work a part of min- 
isterial preparation. In my own early ministry I 
wanted such a class, but I did not know how to obtain 
it, or to teach it. Eecently I asked a young parish 
priest why he did not start a Bible class. He replied : 
"I am afraid to; I don't know how to manage such a 
class; I might be asked questions I could not answer." 

What is a Bible Class? It is not a group of persons 
listening to a Bible lecture, no matter how competent 



170 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the speaker. It is not a cluster of timid people, from 
whom a patient Bible teacher is trying to coax an- 
swers. Neither is it a literary club, an ethical club, 
nor a debating society. The true Bible class is a co- 
operative, working organization, under a competent 
leader, engaged in the actual study of Holy Scripture. 
It divides the labor of preparation between the director 
and the members. It seeks to arouse and utilize the 
resources of every member of the class. It is possible, 
and most desirable, in every parish. In a mission field, 
a good class is of greater value than the pulpit. And 
this is true not of missions only. 

Bible Classes eor Boys from fifteen to nineteen, 
cover the greater part of the high school grades. In 
spite of State laws to the contrary, out of every one 
hundred children who enter a public school, over one- 
half are withdrawn before they reach the grammar 
school, and over ninety-five drop out before they reach 
the high school. The average age at which a boy quits 
school, is fourteen. It is foolish to expect that after 
this age it will be easy to hold him in the Sunday 
School. But, leaving the high school means going to 
the school of labor, whereas quitting the Bible school 
usually means joining a gutter school of irreverence and 
uncleanness. A boy who had already dropped out, was 
asked, "Why did you leave the Sunday School?" He 
answered: "Because I grew, and my teacher didn't." 
It has been estimated by experienced workers that, out 
of every one hundred boys who enter her Schools, the 
Church loses over seventy. It is painful to think of 
such a loss. I do not want to believe the statement, but 
I fear it is close to the truth. 

Yet there are teachers who grow, grow in wisdom 
and grow into the hearts of their pupils; there are two 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 171 

sides to the shield. Not only is it true that between fif- 
teen and nineteen is the age when a very large propor- 
tion of young men throw themselves into a life of vio- 
lence and crime; it is also true that at this age by far 
the greatest number of those who become communicants, 
enter into the sacramental life of the Church. In these 
four years more persons become communicants than in 
the preceding ten, or the following thirty years. If 
we can hold the restless boys in Bible class, or Church, 
until they are nineteen, they may be saved for this life 
and for the world to come. How can we do it? 

"We must use right methods." True, and yet meth- 
ods cannot save them. "We must carefully adapt our 
instruction to their peculiar condition and needs." 
True, and yet adaptation cannot save them. There is 
only one way to save them, and that is the way of 
Christ. We must give ourselves to them. We must 
love them because they are Christ's redeemed souls, 
and make them feel that our matter, and method, and 
personal confidence is the expression of our love. Noth- 
ing at this age can touch the heart of a boy except 
another heart in full sympathy with his own. When the 
heart of the teacher beats in sympathy with the heart 
of the boy, then good methods will not fail to produce 
good results. "The problem of the boy is the problem 
of righteousness, the problem of character." This is the 
purpose of all effort. It must stand first in our plans, 
and our prayers. Knowledge of the Bible, Confirma- 
tion, Holy Communion, all are means to the one su- 
preme end, the building of a Christ-like character. 
Nothing short of this will satisfy God. Nothing short 
of it should satisfy us. 

Our Methods of Instruction should be those which 
give the boy an opportunity to use his natural instincts, 



172 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

and impulses along right lines. Methods which call 
for the boy's physical activity, recognize the value of his 
personality, and are sufficiently varied to fit his wayward 
interest, his fickle attention, and are of real educational 
value in leading him to what is highest and holiest — 
these are the methods which he needs, and which we 
must discover and use. Some of them have already 
been given. (See pages 160 to 167.) 

If we can find a big-souled layman, who knows how 
to be simple, direct, earnest, devout, and, above all 
manly in his teaching ; who knows how to present Christ 
to the boy's heart as the grandest character that ever 
walked the earth, the ideal, and inspiration of all life 
and conduct, then give him this class of boys. If such 
a man cannot be obtained, then the Eector must be such 
a man, and take the class himself. Of course he is 
busy, perhaps already overburdened with other duties. 
But are they more important duties? The boys of to- 
day are the Church workers, or the Church scorners of 
to-morrow. We complain of the great number of unbe- 
lieving men; were they not first doubting boys? And 
shall we ever have believing men unless we build up 
the faith of the boys? Can we do this without labor, 
and sacrifice ? Is not the work worth all it costs ? Is 
there any work more important than saving the boys 
who are standing, undecided, at the parting of the ways 
of life and death ? 

The best hour, in most places, for this class is one 
before the evening service. And if a layman takes the 
class, he is free to carry his class with him to Evening 
Prayer. If the duty falls upon the Eector, the class 
should meet upon an evening between Sundays. It 
must be amid bright and cheerful surroundings. The 
natural interests of the boys may be met by a series of 
lessons on such subjects as The Boys of the Bible, The 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 173 

Soldiers of the Bible, Heroes of the Missionary Field, 
Heroic Characters in Church History, The Prophetic 
Eeformers of the Old Testament, The Life and Times 
of Christ, The Teaching of Christ, or Men of Modern 
Times who have Walked with God. Other suggestions 
for class work will be found on pages 148, 153. 

Bible Classes for Men are more difficult to obtain, 
and less difficult to retain, than classes for boys. Be 
sure that it is the "Men's Bible class/' and not "the 
Kector's." There is much in a name, as I learned 
to my cost. If it is the Kector's class, the responsibility 
for it rests on him, and he has to struggle with might 
and main to hold it together. For this reason it is a 
mistake for the Eector to start a class by making an 
appeal from the chancel, his appeal should be to the 
individual. Pick out the best man in the parsh for the 
back-bone of a class, and gradually educate him to desire 
it. Then, with his aid, convert the best next man to 
the same idea ; then send the two out into the parish to 
work up a class, you remaining a silent but real partner 
in the enterprise. If possible, keep in that position, 
securing for leadership a godly layman, who has not 
lost the enthusiasm of youth, or the aspirations of early 
manhood. 

The class should have a regular organiztion, a secre- 
tary, to keep the roll and the records, a committee to 
obtain new members, another to hunt up absentees, 
another to act as a cabinet of advisers and co-laborers 
with the leaders. These officers should be the best 
workers in the class. Man is a spiritual being, the end 
of the class is to minister to spiritual beings; but God 
has given all of us bodies. The organization may well 
follow some of the lines of a club. It should have a 
bright home. Certainly it should to some extent pro- 



174 THE CHUKCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

vide for the social as well as the religious life of the 
class. A quarterly reception, followed by a class dinner, 
and brief paper on class improvement, cannot but prove 
helpful. The great classes of from 200 to 400 which 
are found in some large churches, are under laymen 
who devote their whole time to the class. There are 
still larger ones in the English Church. 

Classes whose numbers run up into the hundreds 
become congregations, listening to a lecture. Eeal indi- 
vidual cooperation is impossible, unless the class be di- 
vided into sections, during working hours, with a leader 
over each section. This need not break up the class 
unity, which should be preserved by frequently as- 
sembling as one body to hear papers of special interest 
from the members, and to listen to reviews of the work, 
given by the leader, at regular intervals. 

In deciding upon methods of study it must not be 
taken for granted that because pupils have reached ma- 
ture years, they have reached a mature knowledge of the 
Bible. There is a difference, a wide difference, between 
Bible hearing, Bible reading, and Bible study. Prob- 
ably the majority of the young people from the congre- 
gation have heard the Scriptures read in Church or at 
home; some of them have read more or less of their 
Bible each week, but how many have really studied the 
Bible? One who has had wide experience in educa- 
tional institutions, says : "There is not sufficient knowl- 
edge of the Scriptures among our college students 
(themselves being judges) to admit of successful devo- 
tional or practical Bible study." It is a startling fact 
that men entering college to-day, do not possess a knowl- 
edge of the Bible in any degree commensurate with 
their knowledge of other books. 

Some years ago the students of several colleges were 
examined on the Scripture references in Tennyson's 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 175 

Poems. That examination proved that 25 per cent, 
were ignorant of the "daily manna/' and the "crown of 
thorns" ; that 33 per cent, had never heard of the "smit- 
ten rock," or the "Ladder of Jacob"; that 50 per cent, 
could tell nothing of Esau, of Kuth, or of "the Angel of 
the Tomb"; while 75 per cent, failed to understand a 
reference to "St. Peter's sheet." 

Kecently another test was made at a prominent Uni- 
versity. On the question, 'What is the Pentateuch?" 
40 per cent, failed. On, "Does the Book of Jude be- 
long to the Old or the New Testament?" 44 per cent, 
failed. On "Name one of the Patriarchs of the Old 
Testament," the failures were 39 per cent. On "Name 
one of the Judges of the Old Testament," 55 per cent, 
failed. On "Name three Old Testament Prophets," 53 
per cent, failed. Some of these University answers were 
extraordinary. As Judges of Israel were named, Solo- 
mon, Jeremiah, Leviticus, and Nebuchadnezzar. The 
Pentateuch was confused with the Gospels, and in one 
case with the "Seven Gospels." 

Bible Classes eor Women are more easily formed 
than others. It is also less difficult to find among them 
a good class leader. What has been said of the organ- 
ization of men's classes is, in the main, applicable to 
classes of women. More should be made of the social 
side of the class; more visiting will probably be neces- 
sary on the part of the leader. A quarterly, or, in some 
localities, a monthly afternoon tea before the lesson 
session, will be found very helpful. As a rule, a 
woman's class will do more real study, and present more 
class work than a man's, and therefore can be made 
more interesting and helpful for all concerned. For 
lesson material and related matters, see pages 177, 180. 



176 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Classes of Mixed Membership. There is an ad- 
vantage in having separate classes for boys, for men, 
and for women. Classes with members of approximate 
age and capacity, of like spontaneous interests, and like 
mental habits, have more real unity, and are more easy 
to arouse to self-activity and class cooperation. For this 
reason I have spoken of them separately. Yet in the 
real work of two-thirds of our parishes, and in all of our 
missions, the Bible class will be of mixed membership ; 
from lack of material for any other. It is best obtained 
by the Eector creating a desire for it. If the Eector 
will speak warmly of the benefits of such a class, in his 
parochial calls, in the women's guilds, in the vestry 
meeting, and among the young men and women he 
meets, he will soon have a group of earnest souls asking 
for it. 

To such a little group a rector answered: "If you 
really want the class, go ahead and gather its members. 
I am at your service whenever you are ready." Some 
weeks later, they said, "Come and organize us." He 
epected to find fifteen or twenty people — he found over 
forty ; and for years the class kept over thirty. It was 
the people's class, not the Eector' s, and they worked for 
its success. A notice of the time of organization, with 
a general invitation, should be given from the chancel. 
And then, or later, a canvass should be made of the 
whole parish, and the class made as large and as helpful 
as possible. We ought not to be satisfied with a goodly 
number of the faithful. It is the Biblically ignorant, 
and the spiritually unfaithful that need the class more 
than others. If possible, get a good layman, or a good 
woman for class leader. 

The General Interests of Adults. In the three 
classes last named we are not likely to have many 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 177 

persons under twenty. At this age there is a new in- 
terest in poetry, art, music, nature, and like subjects. 
Social feelings are strong, giving a corresponding inter- 
est in the life of the family, affairs of the city, and of 
the nation. The good and evil of socialism, the rights 
and duties of capital and labor, personal civic duty and 
responsibility, these also are subjects already claiming 
their thought and attention. Eeason dominates every- 
thing, protestating against personal dogmatism, and 
arousing questionings, perhaps doubts, in matters of 
religion. 

Lesson Material for Senior Bible Classes is indi- 
cated by the interests just mentioned. The active 
aesthetic emotions can be given free play in the study of 
the Bible as literature, and of the best of pictures, and 
music, for their testimony to the power of religious 
influence in art. Social interests are a call for the 
study of religion and morals in their relation to the 
practical duties of everyday life, to Biblical and every- 
day reforms, to charities and philanthropic enterprises. 
Doubts, and religious questionings can be helped by the 
study of the great principles of Christianity, rather 
than the precepts and petty particulars of religion over 
which men are wrangling. A course in the historic 
evidences of religion, not its polemical theology, may 
well follow. The strong tendency towards fraternity 
and club life should be used to strengthen the class 
organization, and to increase individual activity in pro- 
curing new recruits, and holding fast to old ones. 

Another important consideration should influence 
our choice of lesson courses. We have now reached 
that point in our Sunday School work where we must 
provide for the life and efficiency of the School by the 
preparation of fit students to become its future teachers 



178 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

and officers. In some way the Sunday School must 
provide for the training of its own teachers. They need 
more than the general preparation which comes from 
Bible class work. Yes, more than the preparation 
which comes from the introduction of special peda- 
gogical courses into the senior course of study. But 
we must face the painful fact that in the majority 
of parishes there is no normal course whatsoever ; and in 
the smaller parishes and missions our present hope for 
any teacher-training hangs upon the introduction of 
some special normal studies among the Scripture 
courses of the senior classes. 

In all parishes are many persons who have come into 
the Church from other communions. Usually they are 
interested in Bible study, frequently they are better in- 
formed about the facts of Holy Scripture than our own 
people. They need, however, to be instructed in Church 
history, the historic development of Divine Worship, and 
in personal devotion. Then, we are all too much given 
to attending church for intellectual entertainment, or 
instruction, rather than the offering of spiritual, and 
acceptable worship to God. One or more lesson courses 
should be provided to meet the devotional needs of these 
people. 

This is also the best time to study the writings of St. 
Paul. Previous studies in the Gospels, mental develop- 
ment, and increased experience, have fitted the class to 
understand and appreciate the great philosophical and 
theological writer of the New Testament. The Epistle 
to the Hebrews presents the constructive argument for 
Christianity as the adequate and final revelation of God 
and so forms an excellent introduction to other Epistles. 
Then, St. Paul never fails to face sin in all its re- 
pulsiveness, and terrible consequences. This is a Christ- 
ian attitude supremely needed in these days of self- 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 179 

blinding sophistry, whitewashing of vice, and excusing 
of suicide. 

President Hall of Clark University (one of the first 
living authorities in Psychology), says "Do not tell me 
that sin is not a real thing; that it does not need to be 
preached. It is sin shown, not so much in the acts, as 
in the consciences of young men. It is the power exer- 
cised over them ... by reason of the tendencies 
which exist in their hearts, and in their nature, which 
need right guidance. . . . There is a very close 
rapport between psychology and the Bible — a rapport 
which amounts to sympathy, and which is going to 

amount almost to identity The higher 

ranges of science, that deal with the human soul, rein- 
force every one of the great fundamental tables of the 
Bible. And it is high time that we recognize this, and 
adopt all that it can give us into the Sunday School and 
pulpit." 

Courses of Instruction should be largely, though not 
fully elective. Unless the class is one of unusual ma- 
turity, the Bector had better select several subjects, 
fitted to meet the needs of the class, from which the 
members make the final choice. Courses suitable for 
study at this age may be selected from the following 
list : The Essentials of Child Study ; The Principles and 
Practice of Teaching; Special Studies in the Gospels, 
e.g., "The Gradual Bevelation of the Kingdom of 
Heaven," or of "The Divinity of its Founder"; The 
Social Teaching of Christ ; Christian Socialism, To-day ; 
The Interpretation of "The Kingdom" in the Acts of 
the Apostles ; Studies in the Origin and History of Wor- 
ship ; Studies in the Nature of Devotion, as set forth in 
The Book of Common Prayer; Outline Studies in Cor- 
inthians, Thessalonians, or the Epistles to St. Timothy; 



180 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

A fuller study of the Great Principles of Christianity 
as set forth in the Epistles to the Hebrews, and Eomans ; 
Studies in the Ethical Teaching of Christ; Special 
studies in Missions; An Outline Study of the Bible 
by Books. 

In classes of more mature membership (over twenty- 
five years of age), a selection might be made from such 
advanced subjects as: A Study of Bible History by 
Periods; The Growth of Messianic Expectation; The 
Development and Meaning of Biblical Sacrifices; Ad- 
vance Study of the Life of Christ; The Teaching of 
Christ as to Man's Nature and Destiny; The Place of 
Prophecy as a Preparation for Christianity; The Psy- 
chology of the Bible; Divine Eewards and Penalties; 
The Bible and Christian Citizenship. 

Bible Class Services should be brief. The class 
meets for instruction, not worship; yet no study of the 
Word of God should begin without asking God's blessing 
on the effort; or end without returning thanks for the 
privilege. The service should be brief, hearty, respon- 
sive. Every member should feel that the service, like 
the lesson, is for him. If possible begin and end with 
a bright hymn of praise; this may be followed by the 
Creed, Lord's Prayer, the second Advent Collect for 
opening, and one or two collects at the close. The 
opening and closing devotions together may well be 
kept within ten minutes. 

Methods of Bible Class Work should be the very 
best we can command. The class exists to help each 
member to become a devout Christian, a public spirited 
citizen, an earnest working Churchman. Every method 
that forwards this end is a good one. Those are best 
which arouse the self-activity of the members. A pas- 
sive class is only a passable class, never a good one. 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 181 

Perhaps because they are freer from conventional re- 
straints, the Y. M. C. Associations have more frilly fitted 
their methods to their members, than most congrega- 
tions, and have obtained a corresponding result. A 
study of their method and their Bible study manuals, 
will prove suggestive to class leaders, as they have to me. 

Preparation for Active Co-operation should begin 
with the organization. It must be thorough, yet sim- 
ple. The leader should not stand alone. There may 
well be more than one leader. In all cases there should 
be an executive committee of energetic workers, to ar- 
range for everything except instruction. All the de- 
tails, the care of the room, securing new members, keep- 
ing up attendance, obtaining books and needed appli- 
ances, belong to this board. A wide awake Secretary 
is also a necessity. 

At the First Meeting of the class the leader should: 
(a) Announce the names of the Executive Committee, 
and of a Secretary, secure a list of the names and ad- 
dresses of all new members by passing slips for each to 
sign, (b) Explain the object of the course; (c) the 
method of study to be pursued; (d) how to prepare a 
lesson (using the heads in the next paragraph), and 
illustrating by a concrete example, he must not assume 
that the class know how to study in private; (e) give an 
introduction to the course, and briefly outline it, arouse 
as much interest in it as possible, and emphasize the 
value of personal private preparation. 

Hoiv to Study a Lesson. Preparation should begin 
a week in advance, in somewhat the following order: 
(a) Prayer. "Lord open Thou mine eyes," should be 
the spirit of daily devotion. Collect for second Sunday 
in Advent, Nineteenth after Trinity, or in one's own 
words. (&) Study the texts in their connection, exam- 



182 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

ining all cross-references; using the Bible, and nothing 
but the Bible. It is a grave mistake to introduce 
crutches until forced to it. Eead and re-read the Bible 
text until you are saturated with it. (c) Study parallel 
passages and compare texts. If the Authorized Version 
is used a comparison with the Eevised Version will 
throw much light on the text. In the same manner the 
reading of Greek, German, French, and other texts will 
frequently, by the idiom of languages, serve to explain 
obscure passages and allusions. 

(d) Use Commentaries and Concordance. In the 
matter of Commentaries there are certain standard 
works to which all students of the Scriptures should 
have access if possible, e.g., Edersheim, for "The Life 
of Jesus" ; Trench, for "Parables and Miracles" ; Cony- 
beare and Howson, for "The Life of St. Paul" ; and the 
"Handy Commentary," for the text, (e) Practical les- 
sons, lessons which grow out of the event or circum- 
stances for the people of the period under review. 
Without any reference to our own times, what did it all 
mean to them? (/) Applications. First, apply the 
lesson personally. Then select one or two which can be 
presented with earnestness and conviction. Never lug 
in an application. 

In Conducting the Eecitation the leader should 
have a working nucleus in the class to assist him in 
securing cooperation, by their own example, and by 
their personal efforts to induce others to self-activity. 
This nucleus may consist of the above named commit- 
tee ; but it had better be a changeable body in order that 
each member of the class may, from time to time, be 
placed upon it and taught to work. This body is 
pledged to a thorough preparation of the lesson in ad- 
vance, to assist by asking helpful questions, by answer- 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 183 

ing difficult ones, by preparing for one month such brief 
papers as may be assigned them. Each member should 
be given, a week or more in advance, one or two ques- 
tions which it is important to have accurately, and fully 
answered. Another good way to secure a working 
nucleus is to divide the class into four or more parts, 
one of which becomes the working body each week. 

We have taken it for granted that the lesson hour 
will be given, not to a lecture, but to a recitation. Some 
of the advantages of the question and answer system 
are: Its informality. Its keeping a logical chain of 
thought. Its hold upon the attention of larger num- 
bers. Its helping the mutual acquaintance of class and 
leader. Much depends upon the careful preparation by 
the leader of a series of connected questions, in order 
to develop for the class the line of thought and to draw 
out the practical lesson. Indiscriminate asking of ques- 
tions should not be allowed, and the leader should keep 
the questioning pretty much in his own hands: giving 
an opportunity for questions at the close of each section 
of the lesson. All questions should be aimed at: (a) 
Eevealing a knowledge or ignorance of the matter in 
hand, (b) Fixing the truth in the mind, (c) Fixing 
the meaning of the section studied, (d) Applying the 
practical lessons. Avoid adopting any method so rig- 
idly that positive teaching is excluded, asking too simple 
questions, asking questions which may be answered by 
"yes" or "no." 

The leader needs a larger Biblical knowledge than 
his class, yet he must be careful not to use it to dis- 
courage its diffident members. A competent leader is 
tempted to constantly take the initiative. It seems to 
save time, avoids awkward pauses, secures movement, 
and results. But it paralyzes members who, slow to 
speak, are yet anxious to contribute to the interest of 



184 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

the class. It is the leader's place to plan the lesson in 
advance, to introduce it (when no other is prepared to 
do it), to guide, and limit the discussion, to add the 
final word when necessary, and to sum up and apply its 
lesson to all (himself included). If a leader begins by 
stating his own opinion, or asking leading questions, he 
discourages the activity of the class. If he reserves his 
own view until the close of the lesson, he can suppli- 
ment and widen the knowledge of those who are now 
better prepared to appreciate and accept his words. 

We want, above all, to secure the cooperation of 
backward members, yet to ask them questions individu- 
ally is to frighten them from the class. We must ask 
questions for volunteers to answer, and direct difficult 
questions to those on the nucleus who are prepared to 
answer. By word and manner we should invite helpful 
questions, and be prepared ourselves to answer the most 
difficult ones. Diffident people, who are afraid of their 
own voices, can be educated to take part in the recita- 
tion by giving them, in writing, texts to hunt up, and 
be prepared to read when called for in the lesson. These 
should be distributed by the secretary. After a month 
such persons can be given, a week beforehand, a special 
question to look up and answer orally or otherwise. 

Those who take notes of the lesson (and all should 
be encouraged to do so), may be asked, a week in ad- 
vance, to volunteer to write out a review of the lessons 
for the next week ; and after the ice is once broken, such 
volunteers will not be lacking, as I know from pleasant 
experience. The blackboard should each week contain 
an outline of the lesson. There is usually some member 
of the class who can do it well. The board may well 
contain also small maps, charts, plans of cities, Oriental 
homes, or any other drawing that will throw light on 
the lesson. 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 185 

Lack of time (and the lesson hour should never be 
overrun) may often prevent the answering of questions; 
timidity may often prevent the asking of them. A 
question box adds to the interest. Questions from the 
box should be answered after the review of the lesson 
to which they refer. The illustrating of note-books 
should be encouraged. Photographs and half-tone pic- 
tures of the actual scenery of Palestine are informing, 
and stimulate additional research. 

Printer's ink, or a copying device, can be used to 
increase good work. A course of lessons in Old Testa- 
ment Biography, or New Testament Apostles and 
Saints, presents the same problems of lesson preparation 
each week. A card with the following questions will 
aid better study: (a) What were the conditions (social, 
civil, or religious) which he was called to face? (b) 
What preparation had he made for his life work? (c) 
What was his character, his personal characteristics, and 
his method of work? (d) WTiat was the result of his 
efforts? (e) With what New or Old Testament charac- 
ter would you compare, or contrast him, and why? 
(f) What light does the study of his biography shed 
upon the path of duty to-day ? 

A like card for the course on Christ' s parables or 
miracles, will read somewhat as follows: (a) At what 
period of His ministry was it spoken (or done) ? (6) 
What were the circumstances? (c) Do they invest it 
with any special interest or meaning? (d) Does the 
accounts in the other Gospels shed any new light on it ? 
(e) What is the central truth of the parable? (f) Its 
interpretation in the light of this truth? Or, (e) What 
was the actual miracle? Does the context tell us why 
it was done? (g) To what group of parables (or 
miracles) does this one belong? (h) What does it mean 
for our lives to-day ? 



186 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

A class with permanent membership will find it very 
helpful to have printed for six months or more ahead, 
the topics, lesson schemes, and the special assignments. 
If the lesson is on the Old Testament prophets, a mis- 
sionary journey of St. Paul, or an event in the life of 
Christ; to one person may be assigned the local 
geography, topography, and scenery ; to another the flora 
and fauna ; to another the localities and historical con- 
nections; to another the characteristics and language 
of the people; to another their manners, customs, and 
religion. The result of having each part studied thor- 
oughly by some one pupil results in his increased inter- 
est in a part of the lesson, and in the asking of brighter 
and more helpful questions by all. 

For example, a Y. M. C. A. class was studying the 
first miracle recorded by St. Matthew — the healing of 
the leper. There was a man in the class who had seen 
lepers in the Hawaiian Islands. In about three minutes 
he gave a vivid sketch of their condition. A student, 
now a medical missionary, gave a brief account of 
leprosy from a medical standpoint ; and another summed 
up the leprosy chapter of "Ben Hur." Again, in study- 
ing the parable of the hidden treasure, one student gave 
a three-minute talk on banking in the first century; 
another looked up laws regarding treasure-trove, and 
another, the chapter on the "Moor's Legacy" in Irving' s 
"Alhambra." These of course were side-lights on the 
lesson. The most valuable parts of it were those which 
came from the study of the Bible itself. Yet it is these 
side-lights that make the Scriptures real to us, and con- 
nect their far-off life with the strenuous life of to-day. 

Dean Hodges has well said on this point : "Let the 
teacher connect the Bible history with other history. 
Compare the time of the Judges with the days of 
Chivalry; put side by side Samuel writing down the 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 187 

duties of the King of Israel with Stephen Langton pre- 
senting the Magna Charta for the signature of the King 
of England. Eemind the class that Queen Dido was a 
Philistine, and that the last syllable in the name of 
Hannibal means Baal. Ask them what connection 
Homer had with the Troas which St. Paul visited, and 
what Dr. Schliemann had to do with it. Literature 
also, should be used in illustration. In connection 
with the Magnificat read Longfellow's King Eobert of 
Sicily : with the account of the raising of Lazarus, read 
the Epistle of Karshish, in Browning; with the narra- 
tive of the remarkable courtship of the Benjamites, 
see how it reads as a mediaeval story in Ivanhoe. Say 
a word about the Holy Grail when you speak of Joseph 
of Arimathea: and about the Wandering Jew as you 
study the way of the cross ; remember the Valley of the 
Shadow of Death in the Pilgrim's Progress ; read parts 
of Paradise Lost with the book of Genesis, and portions 
of the Divine Comedy with the Book of the Eevelation 
of St. John. Stanley's History of the Jewish Church, 
and Conybeare and Howson's Life of St. Paul, and 
Dod's Israel's Iron Age afford good examples of the use 
of illustration in Bible teaching." 

The religious side of everything in which the class 
is interested, should be used to throw light upon the 
lesson. Connect religious truth with all other truth, 
religious life with all good lives. "It is one way of 
teaching a most important lesson — the essential sacred- 
ness of all life. It is one good way of helping to banish 
the artificial distinction between the religious and the 
secular. No topic which interests good men is out of 
place in the class. No province of human life is beyond, 
or beneath the domain of religion." 

A Good Leader will seek to cover up mistakes, to 



188 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

encourage all right efforts, and to discourage nothing 
except coldness, formality, and disputations. He will 
know his class sufficiently to be able to draw out the 
knowledge of the wise, to keep cranks off the main line, 
and sidetrack fads and hobbies. He will take it for 
granted that all are interested, that all intend to study, 
that all are willing to work, and that all true members 
had rather do hard things than easy ones. And he will 
not forget to suggest the making up of back work. Is 
not Bible work as well worth making up as botany 
work? 

The leader and executive committee should plan for 
special addresses to be delivered to the class by experts 
in some department of Bible study. Occasional ser- 
mons from clergymen of note, delivered in the Church 
under the auspices of the class will prove helpful in 
arousing interest in outsiders, procuring new recruits, 
and in strengthening the higher life of the class. 
Neither should a social ralty, or evening reception be 
forgotten. 

Boohs for Leaders and Learners are difficult to 
name. Outside of the pulpit, the Church has made lit- 
tle provision for the systematic teaching of her mem- 
bers. Church books for advanced study are compara- 
tively few. So far as possible the Bible itself should be 
the real text book of the class. No commentary, and 
no other help should be used until we have first, by 
earnest study, gotten all we can from God's Book. 

On the Gospels and Life of Christ, the Y. M. C. A. 
books based on the Harmony of Stevens and Burton, are 
useful. The senior grade qualities of the Bible Study 
Union, on the Old Testament are real aids to systematic 
study. "How to Study the Life of Christ" will be a 
good guide for teachers, on the Gospel. In the study of 



INSTRUCTION IN BIBLE CLASS GRADES. 189 

the growth of Christian worship, "How to Worship God" 
will give a helpful outline, and Eev. E. L. Cutts' "Les- 
sons on the Church in the New Testament," will fill the 
same office for studies in the Acts of the Apostles. The 
teacher of boys' classes will find "The Boy Problem/' 
by Forbush, of exceptional value. "The Teacher's 
Normal Courses," by Professor Pease, and his volume, 
and that by Eev. E. T. Sells, on "Bible Studies by 
Books," or "by Periods," are suggestive and helpful. 
For other helps for Bible teachers and learners, see 
Chapter XIII., where the books are grouped under the 
chapter headings of this Manual. 

Finally, in all that has been suggested, and all that 
has been said, let us not forget that it is not the method 
we use, nor even the instruction we give, which decides 
the result. It all depends upon the leader — the man 
behind the method. If he is a true fellow-laborer with 
God, then his work will be fruitful and blessed. There 
are many ways of conducting a class, there is only one 
true class aim: the winning of souls for Christ. For 
ten years a certain leader faithfully held his work to 
its one true aim. The members confirmed from that 
class averaged fifteen a year. One hundred and fifty 
souls brought into the presence of the Master ! The 
words of Bishop Brooks are true : "Greater than any- 
thing else in education, vastly greater than any question 
about how many facts a teacher may have taught his 
pupils, there must always be this other question — into 
what presence has he introduced him; before what 
standard has he made his pupil stand ? In the answer 
to that question are involved all the deepest issues of 
the pupil's life." 



CHAPTER XI. 
INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 

"In all his [St. Paul's] Epistles . . . are some things 
hard to oe understood." — St. Peter. 

The American Church is flooded with Sunday School 
text books, good, bad, and indifferent. A single diocese 
sometimes has thirty or forty. The whole number of 
books and systems in use is two hundred. "But does 
not supply follow demand ?" Yes; and that is the 
worst side of the situation. Whenever there is a lack 
of interest, or a failure to instruct, the blame is laid 
upon the text book. There is a foolish idea prevailing 
that it is the text book that decides the success, or 
failure of instruction. 

We recognize the fact that a competent carpenter 
will do good work even with poor tools, and that an 
incompetent one will do poor work with the best of 
tools. Now, a system, or text book is only a tool. It 
is the person behind the tool that decides the result; 
provided, that the worker in wood is not given the tools 
of a blacksmith, or the worker in iron the tools of a 



INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 191 

carpenter. The Majority of our text books are poor, 
and some are positively bad, because they are not made 
for the material on which they are used. They are 
written by adults, written from the standpoint of adults, 
written in the language of adults, and then handed to 
the helpless teacher for the instruction of children ! 

No text book is bad if it is true to the nature of the 
child, and the teaching of the Church; and no system 
is good that ignores either the varying nature of the 
growing child, or the unvarying truth and doctrine of 
the Church. Beware of anonymous Catechisms. The 
writer who is perfectly loyal to the truth, "as this 
Church hath received the same," will not conceal his 
name, nor seek to shun his responsibility for the doc- 
trine he teaches. No Bishop, priest, or deacon who is 
without a knowledge of child nature, is fitted to select 
]esson courses for children. Their soundness in theol- 
ogy cannot compensate for their lack of knowledge of 
those for whom they are selecting the text books. Let 
the Eector select the truths and doctrines, but in choos- 
ing between the methods of different systems, let him 
take the advice of a thoroughly competent teacher. 

Biblical Catechisms are the foundation of all 
others, and should precede all others. All books with 
printed answers are a temptation to mechanical parrot- 
prating. It takes a first-class teacher to avoid this 
result. In the average parish such teachers are few 
and far between. A good Biblical Catechism sends the 
child to Holy Scripture for his answer. For this reason 
they should not be used before the child is able to read. 
They may well be the first catechisms, but they should 
come after Bible stories and other methods of oral in- 
struction. 

Within the Church, the Bible Catechisms of the 



192 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

1ST. Y. S. S. Commission occupy a high position. Its 
purpose is to issue a series of lessons graded in subject 
and method; pedagogical^ adapted to meet the pupil's 
need; of Churchly material, and reverent form; the 
method obliging the pupil to go to the Bible or Prayer 
Book for information; the text book to contain charts, 
and outline maps for the pupils, and complete maps 
for teacher's reference; with suggestions for memoriter 
work, hand work, picture work, and other forms of pupil 
activity. This is certainly a high ideal and it has re- 
sulted in a series of books which, taken as a whole, are 
probably the best the Church has produced. 

Naturally they are not all of equal merit, or of equal 
positiveness in doctrine. They have been written by 
different authors, a few of whom have felt free to omit 
some truths which the Prayer Book does not omit. Each 
course of lessons should be considered on its own merits. 

Outside of the Church, the Scripture Catechisms of 
the Bible Study Union stand first. The courses are 
carefully selected. In the planning, the grading, and 
the choice of methods, the nature of the child for whom 
they are prepared is the factor that pedagogically domi- 
nates and decides everything. As early as possible they 
provide for written work, by the pupil. Doctrinally 
they are loyal to the truths found in the two great 
creeds of the Church. Naturally the lessons on the 
Acts of the Apostles, the Pastoral Epistles, and on other 
Biblical references to the "Catholic and Apostolic 
Church" omit many things held dear by Churchmen. 

Doctrinal Catechisms need not, and should not 
be in the language of theology, or the forms of dogma ; 
but, unfortunately for the helpless teacher, and bewil- 
dered child, they are frequently in both. Christ's words 
are permeated with doctrine, yet they are neither theo- 



INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 193 

logical in fact nor form; and the common people who 
still gladly listen to them never associate them with 
dogma. It would be a great blessing to the Church if 
all who write for children would study the words of 
Christ, not the utterances of the schoolman. It would 
be a blessing to-day if all doctrinal catechisms followed 
the method of the Church Catechism; and if all who 
have written helps on this most valuable of summaries, 
had realized that it is neither abstract, philosophical, 
nor metaphysical, but a concrete, personal, and in- 
tensely human document. 

Those are intrinsically the best catechisms which 
the most closely follow the Church Catechism, the one 
authorized statement of the doctrinal teaching of the 
American Church. Those are pedagogically, and prac- 
tically, the best catechisms which, loyal to the Church, 
are also loyal to the child for whose instruction the 
Catechism was written. Without loyalty to the child, 
no catechism is of any value in the Sunday School. 
When a child is old enough to learn the words of a doc- 
trinal catechism he is old enough to understand them; 
and to oblige him to repeat the words without a general 
understanding of them is a wrong to his God-given 
nature. 

One of the oldest doctrinal catechisms for children 
is that of the Church of St. Sulpice; also called the 
Dupanloup system, after the great French Bishop who 
perfected it. Pedagogically it is a memoriter work 
pure and simple. The priest, or his appointed catechist, 
teaches the children each lesson, and then the child re- 
peats what has been taught him. The whole result de- 
pends upon the pedagogical knowledge of the catechist. 
In the hands of the average religious teacher, the prob- 
ability is that the child's nature and mental limitations 
will both be ignored. There are several "adaptations" 



194 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

in English, the best I have seen being that of Kev. H. 
H. Oberly, D.D. 

The perverted use of catechisms which obliges the 
child to commit blindly question and answer, i.e., with- 
out proper explanation and understanding, contradicts 
the fundamental laws of education, and contradicts the 
methods employed by the Lord Jesus in all His teach- 
ing. It kills the development of thought-power, it re- 
duces immortal souls to unthinking talking machines. 
It destroys the self-activity of the child, and his sense of 
personal responsibility for what he believes. 

The argument that because a child can retain the 
words, therefore he should be given them to keep for 
later years, when he can understand them, is a very 
poor one. It admits that the memory is to be bur- 
dened for years with lumber which he does not need, 
and cannot use, simply that he may use it when he is 
older. It omits to state that the child may never want 
to use it. It omits to state that the blind repetition 
of unmeaning forms has, in both secular and religious 
instruction, often made the child so to dislike the sub- 
ject, whose empty forms have been forced upon him, 
that in later years he has refused to think of, or to con- 
sider the subject to which they belong. 

On the other hand, to teach a child doctrinal truth 
as fast as he needs it, and no faster; to teach it only 
after its meaning has been made plain by story, illus- 
tration, and explanation, is to follow the divinely given 
laws of mental development, is to nourish thought in- 
stead of starving it, is to fit the child, not for conditions 
which may exist ten years hence, but for conditions 
which exist to-day, which, by mastering to-day, he will 
be fitted to meet and master the conditions of the future. 
It is not by repeating God's truth, but by using it that 
we grow strong. The doctrines we use are the only 



INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 195 

ones we learn to love, and therefore make a part of the 
fabric of our life and character. 

We have already noted under memory work, in dif- 
ferent grades, some of the best of this sort of text books. 
For others, see Chapter XIII. In teaching doctrines to 
children, one good illustration is worth more than 
twenty minutes of explanation. An English book, called 
"Tried and Proved," and Gwynne's "Five Hundred 
Doctrinal Illustrations," will be found helpful. 

Missionary Catechisms are usually attractive to 
children. It is, however, only of late years that the 
American Church has awakened to their importance. 
Yet the seed sown by missionary instruction in young 
and growing hearts has already brought forth blessed 
fruit for the faithful missionary, and for the cheerful 
givers. The Rev. Charles C. Camp, whose tireless and 
loving labor among the Minnesota Sunday Schools made 
their Lenten offerings proportionately the largest in the 
West, has left behind him these words for us all : 

ff Children can be easily taught to care for missions 
and missionaries. I believe our Sunday School instruc- 
tion is deficient in this respect. One Sunday in each 
month is spent by some schools in learning about mis- 
sionary work, and it is not too much. Our children are, 
by their Baptism, made members of the great Mission- 
ary Society, the Church. Teach them the meaning of 
this. Tell them how, in consequence of their generous 
Lenten offerings, they have been recognized by the 
General Convention as the Sunday School Auxiliary to 
the Board of Missions. Much as we value the United 
Lenten offering for the money it brings into the mis- 
sion treasury, we should value it still more for furnish- 
ing the opportunity to teach our children to practise 
self-denial by giving for something outside of the par- 



196 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

ish, and for its help in training those now growing up 
to know and love this missionary part of the Churches 
work. 

For those who wish an interesting and consecutive 
course of instruction on the missions of our own Church 
and the Church of England, the publications of the 
Church Missions Publishing Company of Hartford, 
Conn., may be warmly recommended. Beside their 
Eound Robins, and biographical sketches of noted mis- 
sionaries and Churchmen, they have published three 
series of missionary leaflets well adapted for use in 
Sunday Schools in place of the regular Bible lessons 
once a month. The first series of twelve is entitled 
"The Missionary Chain," and treats of the founding of 
the Church in our land, of our special work among the 
Indians and colored people, in schools and hospitals, 
and in the foreign field. The second series of twenty- 
one leaflets, treats of the "Missionary Districts of the 
Domestic Field." The third series is on "Missions of 
the Church of England." Each leaflet is of eight pages, 
and besides its own interesting summary, gives refer- 
ences to other articles and publications, where the sub- 
ject can be studied more in detail. 

It is by teaching our scholars about missions that 
we are to prepare them to be workers in this part of the 
Church, just as by teaching them how to pray, and sing, 
and read their Bibles we help them to aid in her devo- 
tional life. By teaching them from infancy to care for 
others, we train them to be able helpers in the material 
side of the parish work of caring for the poor and suf- 
fering." 

Missionary Instruction can best be given by having 
a special Sunday devoted to the topic. This plan em- 
phasizes its importance, creates variation, and therefore 



INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 197 

arouses special interest. The day is called "Silver Sun- 
day/' by the children of some parishes, not only from 
the offering then made, but because of its brightness. 
The pupils' interest often extends to the parents, and 
they receive many a missionary lesson by attending the 
children's meetings. The "Silver Sunday" service may 
take the place and hour of the regular school session, 
or it may take the place and hour of the monthly 
"Children's Church," or after the interest has been es- 
tablished, it may be an additional service. 

The following method is in successful operation in 
many places. It is equally adapted to small mis- 
sions. The missionary country or field to be studied is 
announced to the whole School a month (or more) in 
advance. Two classes, one of boys and one of girls, 
are selected to present it. The pupils of these classes 
prepare brief papers on the country, its geography, 
products, and population; on the character and condi- 
tion of the people; the beginnings of missionary work, 
the workers ; the results of the work, particularly among 
the children; on the present needs of the field. The 
Eector or Superintendent should try and get a letter 
from a live missionary in the country under study and 
also be prepared to sum up the information presented, 
and to make such additions as may be needed. 

In preparing the papers, the children will need the 
aid of their teachers, particularly in getting the special 
information required. It has been found, however, that 
the better plan is to have the Eector appoint a perma- 
nent Committee on Missions, the members of which are 
selected because of their special interest in the subject. 
It is their duty to accumulate a store of missionary ma- 
terial, and show the children how to use it. It may well 
begin with a set of the modern volumes of the "Spirit of 
Missions." Copies are found in every congregation, 



198 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

and the Missions House will supply missing numbers. 
It should have a complete set of the publications of the 
Church Missions Publishing Co. (211 State St., Hart- 
ford, Conn). Also such helpful little books as "An 
Introduction to the Study of Missions," -"An Outline of 
India, of China, and of Japan Missions," four volumes. 
(See Chapter XIII.) If there is a public library in 
the town, a request from a few citizens is all that is 
needed to secure the addition of a Missionary Book-case, 
open to everybody. 

The Joint Diocesan Lessons were started in 
1876. They were greatly needed. There were few text 
books prepared for the children of the Church. The 
International Sunday School Leaflets had been started 
some four years earlier, and they were used in many of 
our Schools. TJnchurchly text books, unchurchly li- 
brary books and papers, and unchurchly leaflets were 
teaching the children to be anything but sound Church- 
men. It was the best system that could have been 
adopted when it came into use. It increased the child- 
ren's knowledge of Holy Scripture. It helped the 
growth of diocesan uniformity and national unity in the 
American Church. It helped to unite the scattered 
forces of the Sunday School in Church work. It helped 
the observance of the Christian Year. It has been a 
far-reaching aid in Sunday School activity. It will 
continue to bless the Church just in the measure in 
which it is adapted to modern educational conditions 
and the actual needs of childhood. 

The harmful idea prevails that uniformity in study 
depends upon identity in lesson. This is a mistake. 
If, for example, the subject of the lesson be Christ- 
ian Baptism, and the Scripture selection given to the 
Bible class is Christ's conversation with Mcodemus, 



INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 199 

while that given to the Main School and Primary De- 
partment, is the story of the baptism of the Ethiopian 
Eunuch by St. Philip, are not all the children studying 
the same subject, the same truth, and the same spiritual 
lesson? Is not the uniformity of truth and the uni- 
formity of spiritual lesson the highest and best kmd of 
uniformity ? 

In a uniform series of lessons it is the youngest 
children that are the greatest sufferers. For this reason, 
we would strongly urge that Main School lessons, no 
matter what the series may be, should be kept out of 
all classes for children under eight years of age. And 
we urge this not simply because such children cannot 
understand text books and leaflets fitted for older pupils, 
but because a young child needs something very differ- 
ent, something which he must receive in the beginners' 
class, or he will be unfitted to understand more ad- 
vanced lessons later on. There is, to-day, no need of 
robbing the younger children of the instruction they so 
greatly need. The Diocesan Lesson Committee has 
wisely adopted a special series of lessons for Beginners' 
Classes which adds greatly to the value of the Uniform 
Series. 

A Danger common to all Leaflet Courses is the con- 
stant temptation it brings to the child to use his leaflet, 
without reference to his Bible. One large Pennsyl- 
vania Sunday School, which aided in starting the Dioc- 
esan Lessons, never uses its leaflets. It follows its 
Scripture selections, but wisely obliges the pupil to use 
his Bible by giving him references only to the Biblical 
passages. In this, or some other way, the pupil must 
be taught to base his lesson upon God's Word and not 
upon a scrap of printed paper for which he cannot have 
either reverence or respect. 



200 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Another danger in the use of leaflets is the frequent 
absence of any provision for self-activity, home work, 
or even thought activity. In selecting a series of 
leaflets, preference should be given to the one which 
asks the most intelligent questions; which prints no 
answers to questions which the average pupil is able to 
find in the Scripture selection; and which provides 
blank spaces for the writing out of answers at home. 
A leaflet with vague questions, or those answerable by 
"yes" or "no" is worthless for all purposes of instruc- 
tion. It really teaches the children not to study, and 
not to think. 

We know that the teacher is the most important 
factor in instruction. For this reason we believe that 
she is entitled to the best leaflets, the best text books, 
and the best aids that we can possibly give her? If 
our Eectors and Superintendents were more careful to 
use only such leaflets and text books as are really 
adapted to the ages for which they are prepared, it 
would improve the quality of our whole system of in- 
struction. 

Library Books and Sunday School Papers are 
of value in the measure in which they aid instruction. 
If they are simply amusing or entertaining, they have 
no place in the serious work for which the Sunday 
School exists. A good library is an educational factor 
of pronounced value. It helps to create right ideals, 
and it is a child's ideal that decides his personal inter- 
est and shapes his life. As a rule the average instructor 
underrates the teaching power, for evil as well as good, 
of the books read by our boys and girls. Forty years 
ago Church libraries were full of "goody-goody" and 
unchurchly volumes. And this fact had much to do 



INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 201 

with the religious conceptions and Churchmanship of 
that day. 

The library should be selected by the Bector, or by 
a competent and well-informed committee appointed 
by him. The first place in it should be given to books 
of positive Church teaching. These are fewer than they 
ought to be. Then should come books of positive Christ- 
ian and moral influence. The third place belongs to 
volumes that have a strong, manly, or womanly tone. 
In the fourth place stand tales of patriotism, heroism, 
and all good biographies. Next should be selected the 
best of the Wonder books and Fairy tales, for they have 
a positive value in keeping the historic and religious 
imagination from being destroyed by the materialistic 
methods of our public schools. Some of the best books 
on nature, and out-of-door life should be selected, also 
books on literature help the reader to appreciate the 
Bible* s beauty of form and language. 

The best aids in library selection are those published 
by the "Church Library Association" of Cambridge, 
Mass., a voluntary organization of Churchwomen who 
have read, and are still reading with great care, the 
hundreds of books published each year for children. 
Theirs is not a bare list of titles, but a careful classifica- 
tion of books, under such heads as I have just given, 
with a few words on each volume which give the key 
to its contents. A book is not listed because it escapes 
being bad, it must contain elements of positive excel- 
lence. Persons sending for this list should enclose ten 
cents to help pay the printer. 

A Good Catalogue is needed to make a library educa- 
tional. In a large School each department should have 
its own catalogue of the books fitted for its own grades. 
One catalogue will do for a School under four hundred. 



202 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Titles should be alphabetically arranged, with grade of 
each book indicated. Books for children under ten 
years should have their titles followed by (c). Books 
for Teachers, and Bible classes should be marked by 
a (t). The undesignated volumes belong to the Main 
School. 

Sunday School Papers are a necessity in Schools 
which have no library. If there is already a library, 
they are an educational aid and add greatly to the in- 
terest of the children. There are several Church pa- 
pers. "The Young Christian Soldier" is published at 
The Church Missions House, New York. "The Young 
Churchman" is published in Milwaukee, Wis. This 
paper contains the regular lessons of the Joint Diocesan 
Committee, with helpful questions and hints for teacher 
and pupil. The same firm also publish "The Shep- 
herd's Arms/' an illustrated paper for children in the 
Primary grades. 

A Sunday School Museum is an educational 
agency of positive value and should be started in every 
parish. Once started, it is sure to grow. After the 
purchase of a small cabinet, or book-case, with glass 
doors, and a good lock, there will be little additional 
expense. Different classes should be encouraged to 
make, or purchase models of Biblical objects which help 
to illustrate the lessons. For example, each member of 
a class may purchase a relief map of Palestine (5 cts. 
a piece) for use in their class, and for lending to others ; 
it is stored in the museum with other maps and pictures. 
A bright boy makes a good plan of ancient Jerusalem, 
or Damascus, to help understand a lesson. It is too 
good to be lost, and it goes into the cabinet. 

So models of houses, of utensils, of ancient armor, 
the garments of the people, the implements of different 



INSTRUCTION BY SPECIAL SYSTEMS. 203 

Jewish trades, the vessels of the Tabernacle or Temple, 
lamps, sandals, water-bottles, or any other article made 
or contributed to aid in the understanding of Holy 
Scripture, should, after its first use, be handed to the 
librarian to put in the museum as the common property 
of the School. Girls like to dress dolls. With the aid 
of a set of colored cards of the various officers of the 
Temple, from the High Priest down to the Levite 
server at the Altar, a set of small figures could be ac- 
curately dressed by a class of older girls, to represent 
the Temple officers. Models too large, or too compli- 
cated for youthful ability, may be purchased by the 
whole class, or whole school, from the American S. S. 
Union of New York. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

TEACHER'S MEETINGS AND TEACHEE- 
TEAINING. 

"Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?" 

—St. Paul. 

Teacher's Meetings. Some think that teacher's 
meetings are desirable; others, that "they would be 
nice if they could be had." They are not desirable, and 
they ought not to be nice. They are a necessity. If 
one is satisfied with a do-as-you-please Sunday crowd, 
there is no need of a teacher's meeting. But if there is 
to be a school, there must be unity, unity in organiza- 
tion, in discipline and instruction, unity of aim, and 
unity in doctrinal teaching. There cannot be real 
unity unless officers and teachers meet as one body. We 
may write out an elaborate organization, but it remains 
a paper unity until the workers meet and plan for unity 
of work. Without a regular teacher's meeting, each 
class remains a separate little circle, doing what it 
pleases, with small interest in anything outside of itself. 

In a real School, the Superintendent knows his 
teachers, their ability, their methods of work, their 



TEACHER'S MEETINGS AND TRAINING. 205 

discipline, and the quality of their instruction. He 
also knows how to help them correct their mistakes, and 
to train them to avoid mistakes. The teachers know 
each other's difficulties, and each other's methods, 
hindrances, and successes. Mutual interest quickens 
interest ; hope arouses hope ; zeal fires zeal, and the real 
School becomes a real success. 

If Teacher s Meetings Ought to Be, They Can Be. 
There are difficulties, certainly; but to a healthy mind, 
and a strong will, difficulty is an incentive to more de- 
termined effort. Yes, "there are long distances be- 
tween the residences of teachers, and previous engage- 
ments, and the impossibility of finding a time of meet- 
ing that suits everybody, and no first-class leader to 
direct the meeting/' 

Distance, however, does not count in a city parish, 
there are too many street cars; and in the country, one 
good Samaritan, by taking a large carriage and gather- 
ing up the scattered teachers, has been the salvation 
of many a meeting. If necessary, the meeting may be 
held immediately before or after a week-day service. As 
to previous engagements, these may be obviated by hav- 
ing a fixed, and unchangeable time for the meeting; 
this makes it a standing engagement for God's work. 
Then a good teacher will not make "a previous engage- 
ment" ; only a sudden and serious emergency will keep 
her away. In every busy life something must be sacri- 
ficed. Shall it be God's work, or man's? 

It is not necessary to have the meeting in the church. 
Often it is better held at the rectory, or some central 
home in the parish. The leader need not be an ideal 
one, and he may be changed every quarter. Put in the 
best one you have, and he, or she, will improve with ex- 
perience. The Hector may well act as leader where a 



206 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

good layman is not to be had. We can have a meeting 
without a leader, if we have made our plans for it. 
Someone will take the chair and keep things moving. 
In a good meeting it is not the leader, but the teachers 
that do the work. 

Methods of Conducting a Meeting, are decided by 
what the meeting is for. They should at least prepare 
the officers of the School for the next Sunday's work. 
They ought to do much more, unless there are special 
opportunities for teacher-training. But whatever we 
plan for, we must plan to do it well. Leaders some- 
times kill classes by lack of definite plans and thorough 
preparation. General preparation is not enough; 
neither is a formal lecture from the Eector what is 
needed. Lack of methods and an abundance of words, 
kill a meeting. Lack of special preparation, means 
aimless drifting; and everything that drifts ends in 
a wreck. The best intentioned, eut-and-dried lecture- 
meetings are dull. A dull meeting is the beginning of a 
dead meeting. I speak from early and sad experience. 

Only those are right methods which arouse the inter- 
est and self-activity of the teachers. Marion Lawrence, 
a very successful worker, secures both by what he calls 
an "Angular Teacher's Meeting." The work is laid 
out three months in advance, and a copy, given to every 
teacher that he may know what is expected. There is 
a special teacher appointed to prepare and present each 
part of the lesson, and in this method is laid the founda- 
tion of the meeting s success. Every lesson is supposed 
to have twelve "angles," or parts, and each has a teacher 
ready to present it. The "angles" are as follows : 

Angle No. 1. The Approach to the Lesson. Give 
the subject of the last lesson, brief intervening history, 
time, place, and circumstances leading up to this lesson. 



TEACHER'S MEETINGS AND TRAINING. 207 

No. 2. The Lesson Story. Give the lesson story in your 
own words. No. 3. Analysis. Give a simple working 
outline for studying, and for teaching the lesson. No. 
4. Eeferences. Give helpful references, and parallel 
Scripture passages, showing how they bear upon the 
lesson. No. 5. Biography. Give names and explana- 
tions of persons, classes, and nations, mentioned or re- 
ferred to. No. 6. Orientalisms. Give any Eastern 
customs or manners related to this lesson. No. 7, 
Principal Teachings. Give the principal truths most 
forcibly presented by the lesson. No. 8. First Step in 
Instruction. Give a good way to introduce this lesson 
to your class, so as to secure attention from the start. 
No. 9. Give the features of this lesson which are best 
adapted to small children. No. 10. Object Teaching. 
Give names of any objects which might be profitably 
used in teaching this lesson. No. 11. Illustrations. 
Give a few incidents or facts that will serve to illustrate 
the lesson truths. No. 12. Practical Lessons. Give 
the most practical methods of applying personally the 
lesson to the pupil's every day life. 

All present are invited to ask questions, or other- 
wise contribute to the meeting. The lesson leader may 
give a final "summing up" of the lesson, and should be 
prepared on all the "angles," so as to take the place of 
anyone who may not be present. The anglers are re- 
quested to stick to their own angles, and not attempt to 
give the whole lesson. 

If this is the only regular Teacher's Meeting (it 
ought not to be), provision should be made to devote 
a part of the time to other subjects. A ten-minute 
paper, once in two weeks, may be given on such subjects 
as, How can we improve our Meetings? How enlarge 
its membership? How can we improve our School's 
Organization? Aid in its Discipline? Secure better 



208 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

order in the class? Secure the Parents 5 Cooperation? 
Enlarge its numbers ? What are the Characteristics and 
Spontaneous interests of a Child under Six Years? 
Under Nine? Under Twelve? Under Fifteen? Un- 
der Nineteen ? How can we hold the Interest of Boys ? 
Of Girls? How increase their Home Work? Papers 
on these and like topics in the art of teaching, followed 
by questions, and brief discussions, will do much to 
improve the spirit and work of the School. The differ- 
ent methods mentioned in this Manual may well be pre- 
sented and discussed. Lesson methods are frequently 
more important than lesson facts, and call for the 
earnest study of each teacher who would improve his 
work. 

In some parishes and missions, where it is difficult 
to maintain a regular teacher's meeting (I do not be- 
lieve it is ever impossible), the Eector assists in the 
lesson preparation by making the Scripture selection 
for the School the basis of his Friday evening exposi- 
tory lecture. This is always helpful as far as it goes; 
but he must be careful to treat the passage in a larger 
and broader way than is usually done for School pur- 
poses, or he will keep away some who are not teachers. 
In truth, the better and more largely illustrated he 
makes his exposition the better will it be for his whole 
congregation. This Bible preparation, however, should 
not be used as a substitute for teacher-preparation. It 
should give the teacher all the more time for a fort- 
nightly conference for the study of those arts and meth- 
ods of instruction in which many teachers are lacking. 

True Teacher-Training is not preparing for a 
lesson, but for life-long usefulness. There is nothing 
new about it, The Christian Church from the begin- 
ning has been built up by instruction. The Church 



TEACHER'S MEETINGS AND TRAINING. 209 

was organized for teaching and worship. Its teaching, 
like its worship, was done by men trained and set apart 
for that purpose. Pulpit discourses came in later and 
marked a distinct loss in the religious instruction of 
children, and in the spiritual growth of the Church. 
It is ours to work for the restoration of the teaching 
power which the Church lost by ceasing to train her 
teachers, and to make full use of their ministry. 

"If you would destroy a Nation, begin with its 
Schools/' so reads an ancient Hebrew proverb. When 
it was written the schools were all religious, and the 
Nation and the Church were one ; to-day they are sep- 
arate and the schools are secular. The modern truth 
of the proverb is: If you would destroy both Nation 
and Church, begin with its religious schools. There 
can be no schools without teachers. A school is never 
better than its teachers. The spiritual and mental 
training of the teacher decides the worth of the school. 
The value of its schools decides the worth of the Nation 
and the Church. 

The life of each Sunday School depends upon the 
perpetuation of its teaching force. Each School must 
train, or provide for training, its own teachers. Not 
to do this means school-suicide, and parish decay. A 
study of former and present conditions in the country 
towns of a representative diocese, showed plainly that 
the Church had grown, or held her ground, only in those 
parishes that had kept up their Sunday Schools. In 
all others, death and removals were weakening or de- 
stroying the parish. 

A large portion of our teaching force comes from 
our own Schools; and the proportion would be larger, 
and the quality better if the heads of our parishes were 
more faithful. Said an experienced Superintendent: 
"In our School I found, after a short time, that I 



210 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

would be left without teachers unless I planned to train 
them myself. So, thirty-five years ago, I started a 
weekly training class for teachers, in which we study 
the lesson for the following Sunday. That has been 
kept up every year, except during July and August. I 
found, however, that more was needed. I found also 
that there was a desire on the part of young people to 
iearn how to teach, so I formed a class of intending 
teachers, which now numbers forty-seven. Out of our 
present sixty-seven teachers, fifty-seven were once schol- 
ars in our Sunday School ; and behind them I have the 
training class of forty-seven ; so our supply is ample." 

Even in smaller Schools the Senior Bible class can, 
and should provide for the essentials of teacher-train- 
ing. Such classes cannot do all that is needed, but they 
can lay foundations on which an earnest teacher by read- 
ing, study, and special training, can build up a good 
superstructure. The fact that a large number of our 
teachers are so poorly prepared for their work does not 
reflect upon them, but upon the parishes that have failed 
to provide for their training; see page 45. A parish 
that is unwilling to spend anything for the training of 
its teachers does not deserve to live. Usually it does 
not live, although it may have a starved, half-dead exist- 
ence for several years before it becomes defunct. 

Methods of Training must necessarily be adapted to 
actual conditions. But there are no circumstances 
which makes it the duty of one to teach, and excuses 
him from training himself, in some way, for the work. 
Every teacher who accepts a class must, with it, con- 
scientiously accept the duty of beginning at once some 
form of systematic preparation to improve his teaching. 
The parish certainly has a duty in this matter. It 
should for the children's sake, and its own sake, make 



TEACHER'S MEETINGS AND TRAINING. 211 

it easy to obtain the training needed. The simplest 
training school is one in which the Eector is Principal 
and Professor of Biblical Literature and Doctrine ; with 
the best trained teacher in town for Professor of Child 
Nature, and the Art of Teaching. This gives a faculty 
powerful enough to reform the whole teaching force of 
the parish. 

Another way in which the city parish can fulfil its 
duty to teachers is by arranging for the formation of 
"Teacher-Training Classes." A parish, or a club of 
neighboring ones, can arrange with the N. Y. S. S. 
Commission (or its own diocesan Commission), for 
teacher's conferences, and personal instructions con- 
ducted by a Sunday School specialist. The expense is 
not large, and becomes small when divided among sev- 
eral parishes. If, however, the parish authorities are 
too short-sighted to arrange for such instruction, then 
the teachers should club together and get it for them- 
selves. The services of the best local public school 
teacher for instruction in the essentials of pedagogy, or 
an out-of-town specialist can be obtained for the cost of 
an ordinary novel, if the amount is divided up between 
twenty or thirty teachers. 

If the parish shirks its duty, the earnest teacher will 
the more energetically strive to prepare himself by pri- 
vate study. "Beading Courses," i.e., lists of books best 
fitted to train a teacher for his 'work, have been selected 
and printed by the Sunday School Commissions of New 
York, Iowa, California, and other dioceses. A selection 
from the New York list will be found in Chapter XIII. 
Some teachers find it difficult to study alone, and most 
of us accomplish more with fellow laborers. Hence a 
"Teacher's Eeading Club" aids in keeping up interest 
in study even though it be a club of two or three. An- 
other advantage of the club is that if six teachers each 



212 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

purchase a single volume the club has the use of six 
books, perhaps as many as will be mastered in a year. 

A group of such clubs may easily be formed in a 
small section of a diocese. And keeping in touch by 
correspondence, and by the exchange of books, still more 
stimulating conditions for study are created. Where 
there is a public library, educational books of value are 
usually found on its shelves, and others of general in- 
terest will be purchased if requested. The Diocese of 
California maintains a Teacher's Travelling Library for 
the benefit of scattered parishes. An excellent ex- 
ample for others. 

The Diocese Can, and Ought to Help the 
Teacher. It is doing so only to a limited extent. 
A few have held Summer Schools for the benefit of 
teachers. Many dioceses have annual Sunday School 
Institutes, which are helpful for the locality in which 
they are held. What is needed is more interest and 
more institutes, and the two go together. The teach- 
ers of a diocese are too scattered to assemble at any one 
city. Every diocese, however, is divided into convoca- 
tions or deaneries. What the Sunday School needs are 
meetings of workers in each of these districts once a 
year. A few dioceses already have them. With an abun- 
dance of stimulating instruction, and kindly hospitality 
every teacher will want to return the following year and 
bring all his fellow workers with him. Sunday School 
officers must get together and work together in the 
deanery, and in the annual council. When they make 
their influence felt they will be able to obtain from the 
diocese some recognition of the supreme importance of 
their work to the welfare of the Church. 

In our great and growing nation the parishes are 
widely scattered, the workers are isolated: rectors and 



TEACHER'S MEETINGS AND TRAINING. 213 

teachers alike need the personal touch and interest of an 
experienced diocesan officer appointed to aid and guide 
the teaching forces of the diocese. When every diocese 
has such an officer, School and Church will grow by 
leaps and bounds. 

In Concluding the Subject of Instruction, 
which occupies the larger part of this volume, we would 
emphasize one truth. The more we study the past work 
of the Sunday School, its success and its failure; the 
more we know of its present condition, methods, and re- 
sults, the more we are convinced that the key to the 
whole situation is neither organization nor administra- 
tion, neither discipline, nor curriculum, nor text book. 
The key to the whole situation is the teacher. The great 
hindrance to our progress is the incompetent teacher. 
The most powerful factor in making the Sunday School 
a success in the eyes of God, is the mentally and spiritu- 
ally competent teacher. In the light of this undeniable 
truth the work that should be the first in time, the first 
in importance, and the first in all our plans for Christ- 
ian education, is the adequate training of our teachers. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
HELPFUL BOOKS AND APPLIANCES. 

"Of making many books there is no end." — Ecclesiastes. 

The endless number of publications compels a care- 
ful choice. This chapter contains a limited list of valu- 
able books for officers and teachers, other volumes have 
been referred to in earlier chapters. A quite full list of 
manuals, text books for children, pictures, and other 
supplies is published by the New York Sunday School 
Commission, 416 Lafayette Street, New York. It can 
be had for seven cents. It is valuable for reference. 

On Child Nature. 
Study of Child Nature, Harrison. (Kindergarten Age.) $1.00. 
The Story of the Mind. J. M. Baldwin. 40 cts. 
Bible School Pedagogy. A. H. McKinney. 40 cts. Eaton. 
Sunday School Teaching, Child Nature, and Religious Pedagogy. 
W. W. Smith. 50 cts. N. Y. S. S. Commission. 

Organization, Administration, and Discipline. 

The Modern Sunday School. Dr. Vincent. 90 cts. or 20 cts. 
Seven Graded Sunday Schools. Dr. J. L. Hurlbut. 
Practical Primary Plans. J. P. Black. $1.00. Re veil. 
The Home Department. Hazard. 25 cts. Pilgrim Press. 
The Librarian. E. L. Foote. 35 cts. Eaton and Mains. 
How to Keep Order. Professor Hughes. 15 cts. Kellogg. 



HELPFUL BOOKS AND APPLIANCES. 215 

The Principles of Education. 

Principles of Religious Education. $1.25. Longmans. 
The Seven Laivs of Teaching. Gregory. 65 cts. Pilgrim Press. 
Point of Contact in Teaching. Dubois. 75 cts. Dodd. 
Picture Work (i.e., verbal). W. L. Hervey. 30 cts. N. Y. 
S. S. Commission. 

Kindergarten and Primary Department. 

A Sunday School Kindergarten. Rev. A. C. Haverstick. 50 cts. 

The Young Churchman Co. 
A Year of Sunday School Lessons for Children (of six to 

eight years). F. U. Palmer. $1.00. Macmillan. 
Bible Lessons for Little Beginners. Mrs. Haven. Two Years' 

Course. 2 vols., each 75 cts. net. Revell. 
Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks. Sarah E. Wiltse. 

75 cts. (Valuable for method as well as matter.) 
Stories for Primary Schools. Wiltse. 50 cts. Ginn. 
The Kindergarten Sunday School. Miss F. Beard. 75 cts. 

Pilgrim Press. (Lessons, and Song Lists.) 
Kindergarten Stories. Miss Cragin. Winona Publishing Co., 

Chicago. (Illustrating the Beatitudes, etc.) $1.25 net. 
Song of Our Syrian Guest. 25 or 50 cts. Pilgrim Press. 
First Steps ( Bible Stories ) . 50 cts. Charles Foster Co. 
Old and New Testament Stories for Children. R. G. Moulton. 

2 vols., each 50 cts. Macmillan. 
Old Stories of the East, Baldwin. 45 cts. Am. Book Co. 
Story of the Bible. Hurlbut. $1.50. Winston. (Excellent.) 
Stories of the Saints. Mrs. Chenoweth. $1.00. Houghton. 
Parables from Nature. Mrs. Gatty. (Remarkably good.) 
Complete Handbook of Religious Pictures. 7 cts. (A very 

valuable help.) 
Picture Mounting Books. 8 cts. (144 pages, firm covers.) 
Picture Prayer, Creed, and Commandment Cards. 12 cts. a 

dozen. (Attractive, useful.) Above three items: N. Y. 

S. S. Commission, 29 Lafayette Place, New York. 
Cards to Prick and Sew. Bible Study Publishing Co. 

Main School, Junior Grade. 

(for bible stories see books under preceding grades.) 

Unconscious Tuition. Bishop Huntington. 15 cts. Kellogg. 
The Black-Board Cla>ss. Darnell. 25 cts. Wilde Co., Boston. 



216 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

The Prince of Peace. Miss Alden. $1.50. (Vividly told.) 
When the King Comes. Dean Hodges. $1.25. (Realistic.) 
Teaching the Catechism. Miss Ward. 60 cts. net. Longmans. 

(Simplest, best.) 
Introduction to the Bible for Teachers. Miss Chamberlain. 

$1.00. University of Chicago Press. (A guide, and help.) 
Papers of the Church Missions Publishing Co., Hartford, Conn. 
Modern Heroes of the Mission Field. Bishop Walsh. $1.00. 
Manual on Land of the Bible. Bradner. 10 cts. Y. C. Co. 
Manual on Life of Christ. (Junior.) 70 cts. N. Y. S. S. Com. 
Manual on First Christian Missionaries. 60 cts. N. Y. S. S. 
The Twelve Apostles. Mulligan. Temple Series. 35 cts. 
Manual of Old Testament Stories. 50 cts. 
Manual on Life of Jesus for Juniors. 50 cts. 
Manual of Old Testament History for Juniors. 50 cts. These 

three, from Bible Study Publishing Co., Boston. 
Smith's Bible Dictionary (Condensed). One vol., $1.25. Revell. 
Sketches of Jewish Social Life. Edersheim. $1.25. 
Primmer of. Old Testament History. Temple Series. 
Abraham, and the Patriarchal Age. Temple Series. 
Joseph, and the Land of Egypt. Temple Series. 
Joshua, and the Conquest. Bennett. Temple Series. 
Moses, and the Exodus. Stevenson. Temple Series. 
Gideon, and the Judges. Patterson. Temple Series. 
Samuel, and His School. Sime. Temple Series. 
David, the Hero King. Knox-Little. Temple Series. 
Saint Peter, and his Training. Temple Series. 35 cts. 

Main School, Middle Grade. 

(see titles under junior grade on subjects 

taught in this.) 

A Harmony of the Gospels. Stevens and Burton. Boards, 

75 cts.; cloth $1.25. Silver & Burdett. 
How to Study the Life of Christ. Butler. 75 cts. Whittaker. 
Life of Christ. Farrar. 50 cts. Burt's Library. 
How to Teach the Catechism. Daniel. 35 cts. Y. C. Co. 
Direct Answers to Plain Questions. Scadding. 25 cts. Y. C. Co. 
Holy Land in Geography. MacCoun. 75 cts. Revell. 
The Boy Problem. Forbush. 75 cts. Cong. Pub. Society. 
Illuminated Lessons on Life of Jesus. Forbush. 25 cts. 



35 


cts. 


35 


cts. 


35 


cts. 


35 


cts. 


35 


cts. 


35 


cts. 


35 


cts. 


35 


cts. 



HELPFUL BOOKS AND APPLIANCES. 217 

Bible Travel Lessons. Forbush. (Free.) Underwood & Un- 
derwood, New York. 

How to Help Boys. Edited by Dr. Forbush. $1.00 a year. 
(The above four publications suggestive and valuable.) 

Book of Golden Deeds. Miss Yonge. (For illustrations.) 

Doctrinal Illustrations. Gwynne. Gorham. 

St. Paul. J. Gamble. Temple Series. 35 cts. 

Life of St. Paul. Stalker. 60 cts. Revell. 

Church in the New Testament. Cutts. $1.00. Gorham. 

The Spirit of Missions. $1.00 a year. Leaflets and Pamph- 
lets, free. Church Missions House, New York. 

Outline of African Missions. Parsons. 50 cts. Macmillan. 

Mission Manuals of Student Volunteer Movement. Valuable 
and inexpensive. (25 to 50 cts.) 3 W. 29th St., New York. 

A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer. Dr. W. R. 
Huntington. 50 cts. Whittaker. (The best brief.) 

Companion to Prayer Book. Bishop Beckwith. 50 cts. Whit- 
taker. 

Manual, Prayer Book and Catechism. Norris. $1.25. (De- 
votional. ) 

Prayer Book Reason Why. Boss. 20 and 50 cts. Whittaker. 

Teacher's Manual, Life of Christ. (Seniors.) 50 cts. N. Y. 
S. S. Commission. 

Teacher's Manual, St. Paul and Early Church. 50 cts. N. Y. 
S. S. Commission. 

Maps for Class Use. 15 cts. a dozen. N. Y. S. S. Commission. 

Teacher's Manual, Christian Ethics. 50 cts. N. Y. S. S. Com. 

Bible Lessons on the Christian Year, Old and New Testament. 
Gwynne. (Senior Lessons serve for lower grade teaching 
Manuals.) Gorham. 

Bible Classes. 

(see titles under preceding grades on subjects 
continued in this.) 

The Man Jesus Christ. Speer. 60 cts. Revell. ( Illuminating. ) 
Life of St. Paul. Conybeare and Howson. $1.25. 
How Shall I Worship God? Dr. Butler. 85 cts. (Vivid pic- 
tures of the growth of Christian Worship.) 
Sacrificial Worship (O. T.). Dr. Gold. $1 net. Longmans. 
Teacher's Prayer Book. Bishop Barry. $1. Nelson. 
How to Study the Life of Christ. Butler. 75 cts. 



218 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Constructive Studies in Life of Christ. $1.00. U. of Chicago. 

Studies in the Teaching of Jesus. Bosworth. Y. M. C. A. 

Jesus Christ and the Social Question. Peabody. $1.50. 

History of the American Church. Bishop Coleman. 35 cts. 

The Reformation in Great Britain. Wakeman. 35 cts. 

History of the Church to A.D. 325. Bate. 35 cts. Gorham. 

Outlines of Old Testament Theology. Burney. 35 cts. 

The Handy Commentary. From 75 cts. to $1.00 per volume. 

Parables of Our Lord. Marcus Dods. $1.12. Whittaker. 

Teacher's Normal Course. Pease. 2 vols., 25 cts. each. Bevell. 

Bible Study by Periods. H. T. Sell. 60 cts. Eevell. 

The Teaching of Bible Classes. E. T. See. 50 cts. Interna- 
tional Y. M. C. A., New York. (Very useful manual.) 

Turning Points in General Church History. Cutts. $1.25. 
Y. C. Co. 

Turning Points in English Church History. Cutts. $1.00. 
Y. C. Co. 

The Great Value of Foreign Missions. Liggins. 75 cts. Baker. 

Religious Movements for Social Betterment. Strong. 50 cts. 

Forward Movements, Last Half Century. Pierson. $1.50. 

The Bible, What it is. Temple Series. 35 cts. Lippincott. 

Roman and Protestant Bibles. Prize Essay. 50 cts. N. Y. 
S. S. Commission. 

Introduction to Creeds. Maclear. 60 cts. Macmillan. 

Reasons for Being a Churchman. Little. $1.25. Y. C. Co. 

Special Systems. 

The Joint Diocesan Series of Leaflets. Quarterlies, and Teach- 
er's Helps are published by T. Whittaker, New York; and 
G. W. Jacobs, Philadelphia, and in The Young Churchman 
(weekly) and The Shepherd's Arms (weekly), Milwaukee. 
Also leaflets with space for written answers, by the 
Church S. S. Association, Rochester, N. Y. 

Bible Lessons on the Christian Year (four grades). Gwynne. 
14 to 30 cts. Gorham, New York. 

Bible Study Union Graded Lessons. (The Blakesley System.) 
Lesson Quarterlies with Teacher's Manuals for all grades, 
whole Bible. Bible Study Publishing Co., Boston. 

Church Lesson Books (mostly Biblical), with Teacher's Man- 
uals arranged by topics, and carefully graded. N. Y. S. S. 
Commission, 29 Lafayette Place, New York. 



HELPFUL BOOKS AND APPLIANCES. 219 

S. Sulpice System. An ancient memoriter method applied to 
the Church Catechism. Three Series: Doctrine, Conduct, 
Worship; with hand-books for teachers. 10 cts. each. 
Y. C. Co., Milwaukee. 

For Systematic Study of Missions: The Mission Manuals al- 
ready mentioned. (See page 196.) Various leaflets 
(free). Church Missions House, New York. 

Introduction to Study of Missions. Hodgkins. 50 cts. Mac- 
millan. 

A Short History of Missions. Geo. Smith. 75 cts. Scribner. 

Modem Missions. T. J. Gracey. $1.25. Revell. 

Africa Waiting. Thornton, 25 cts. Student Volunteer. 

Dawn on the Hills of Tang. Heath. 75 cts. Revell. 

Japan and its Regeneration. Carey. 50 cts. Student Volun- 
teer Movement. 

An Outline Study of Japan. Griflis. 50 cts. Macmillan. 

An Outline Study of India. Mason. 50 cts. Macmillan. 

An Outline Study of Africa. Parsons. 50 cts. Macmillan. 

Children's Lesson Papers from the Church Missions Publishing 
Co., 211 State St., Hartford, Conn. (See page 196.) 

For the Museum. Palestine seeds, plants, woods, models, etc. 
N. Y. S. S. Commission, Lafayette Place, New York. 

For Self-Activity of Pupils in modelling Biblical objects, maps, 
etc. Kindergarten clay, 50 cts. a package. Paper pulp, 
10 cts. a pound (carriage extra). N. Y. S. S. Commission. 

Teacher Training. 

Education in Relation to Religion and Morals. Coe. $1.35. 
Revell. 

Charts of Childhood, and Adolescence. 15 cts. each, 25 cts. for 
both. Prof. E. P. St. John, Hartford, Conn. (An admir- 
able outline of the essentials of Child Nature.) 

A Syllabus of Religious Education. Prof. Hodge. 15 cts. 
(Very suggestive and valuable for thoughtful students.) 

Sunday School Teaching, Child Study, and Religious Pedagogy. 
Smith. 50 cts. N. Y. S. S. Commission. (An excellent 
Church text-book on the science of teaching.) 

The Pedagogical Bible School. S. B. Haslett. $1.25 net. 
Revell. (A most complete work, and one often consulted 
in the preparation of this manual.) 

Primer on Teaching. Adams. 20 cts. Young Churchman Co. 
(Condensed truth.) 



220 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 

Place of the Story in Education. Wiltse. 50 cts. Ginn. 

The Point of Contact in Teaching. Dubois. 75 cts. Dodd & 
Mead. (Simple, stimulating, enlightening.) 

The Natural Way in Moral Training. Patterson Dubois. 
$1.25 net. Revell. (For thoughtful students; rich in 
illustrative matter. ) 

Religion in Boyhood. E. B. Layard. 75 cts. Dutton. 

Talks to Teachers. Prof. James. $1.50. Y. C. Co. 

Sunday School Science. Holmes. 25 cts. Eaton & Mains. 

The Teacher and the Child. Professor Mark. 75 cts. net. 
Revell. (By a master of method; stimulating.) 

Teacher Training. Dr. Roads. 25 cts. Eaton & Mains. 

How to Plan a Lesson. Miss M. C. Brown. 50 cts. Revell. 

Outline of Bible School Curriculum. Pease. $1.50. Univer- 
sity of Chicago. 

The Complete Normal Manual, for Bible Students. Seme- 
broth. 50 cts. Revell. 

The Art of Securing Attention, The Art of Questioning. Pro- 
fessor Fitch. 15 cts. each. Kellogg. 

How to Keep Order, and How to Hold Attention. Professor 
Hughes. 15 cts. each. Kellogg. 

Bible Study by Books, and Bible Study by Periods. Sell. 25 
cts. each. Revell. 

Hoio to Teach the Bible. Gregory. 

Hours With the Bible. Geikie. 6 vols., $7.50. James Pott. 

Reasons for Being a Churchman. Little. $1.25. Y. C. Co. 

The S. S. in the Development of the American Church. O. S. 
Michael. $1.50. Young Churchman Co. 

Theology of the New Testament. Adeney. 75 cts. Whittaker. 

Church Doctrine Bible Truth. Sadler. 50 cts. Y. C. Co. 

History of the Episcopal Church. Tiffany. $1.25. Scribner. 

Map Modelling. A. E. Maltby. $1.25, Kellogg. 

(See other titles under Child Nature, Organization, Bible 

Class, and Principles of Education — (pages 214, 218). 

A Teacher's Library. 

Every parish should have a Teacher's Reference Library. 
If there is a parish house there should be a Teacher's Read- 
ing Room. The latter should contain at least all the regular 
Church papers, all the missionary publications issued from the 
Church Missions House, the American Church Sunday School 
Magazine, the New York Sunday School Commission Bulletin, 



HELPFUL BOOKS AND APPLIANCES. 221 

and the Sunday School Times (Philadelphia), the most helpful 
of the non-Church papers. 

The Library should contain a set of good commentaries 
covering the whole Bible, Hasting' s Bible Dictionary, 4 vols.; 
Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, 2 vols.; Smith's 
Historical Geography of the Holy Land; The Land and the 
Book; Life of Christ, by Edersheim, by Farrar, and by An- 
drews; and a line of books covering every department of Sun- 
day School work. The volumes named in this chapter (text- 
books excepted), will make the beginning of a good library 
list. The needs of the Teacher's Training Class, and the actual 
working of the School will suggest others. Be sure that 
quality, not quantity, is your aim in the library, and in all 
your work for the Master. 



Index 



INDEX 



Activity, essential to growth, 
101-8, 148, 150, 160, 182, 
184. 

Administration, 30, 42-4, 65. 
Unit in, 42. 

Adaptation a basic prin- 
ciple, 101-4. 

Adolescence, period of, 22-8, 
151, 168. 

Appeal, educational ground 
of, 130, 147, 166. 

B. 

Bibliography, 214. 
Biblical Catechisms, 191. 
Bible, central in education, 
178-9. 
Classes, 169. 
Ignorance of, 174. 
Biography as lesson mate- 
rial, 120, 130-2, 142, 148, 
155, 167, 172, 185, 196. 
Buildings, see School. 

C. 

Catechisms, 191, 194. 

The Church, 100, 195. 
Character Building, 6, 20, 

22-3, 25-6, 79-82. 
Child Study and education, 

11, 14. 



Child's relation to Church, 

1, 6. 
To Pastor, 3. 
Childhood, periods of, 8, 9, 

15, 18, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27. 
Nature of, 9, 10. 
Limitations of, 12, 13. 
Children's Church, 89. 
Organizations, 79-81. 
Chivalry, age of, 152. 
Chorister, 40. 
Clubs and Societies for 

Children, 19, 20. 
Confirmation, age of, 25, 27, 

138. 
Conscience in Children, see 

Moral Nature. 
Co-operation of Pupils, see 

Activity. 
Covenant Roll, 54. 
Cradle Roll, see Covenant. 
Curiosity helpful, 16. 
Curriculum, 103, 110, 113. 

D. 

Decision, age of, 27. 
Definite Instruction, need 

of, 6, 97-100. 
Departments, see Grades. 
Devotion, see Worship. 
Discipline, School, 67, 71, 

74-76, 79, 82. 
Class, 72, 75. 



226 THE CHURCHMAN'S MANUAL OF METHODS. 



Doctrine as lesson mate- 
rial, 99, 100, 110, 113, 
130, 138, 155-6, 178-9, 
180, 192-5. 

E. 

Education, aim of, 98, 100. 
Emotions, development of, 

17, 19, 21, 26, 28, 111, 

115, 138-9. 
Environment, Influence of, 

76-8. 
Expenses of Sunday School, 

94. 

F. 

Fundamental Truths, 1. 

G. 
Geography, Biblical, 135. 
Grades and Grading, 32-3, 
54, 57. 

H. 

Habit, Age of, 20, 136. 

Habits, growth of, 20, 22, 136, 
146. 

History as Lesson Mate- 
rial, 106, 130, 142, 148, 
155, 157, 187. 

Holy Communion and child, 
138-9. 

Home Department, 60, 61. 

I. 

Ideals of youth, 22, 80-1, 
152-3, 166. 
Age of, 25. 
Imitation, age of, 18, 128. 
Impulse, age of, 15, 110. 
Imagination, 133. 
Instruction, first principles 
of, 97. 
Definite purpose of, 98, 100. 
By special systems, 190. 
Methods of, see Methods. 
Interest, stages of, 106. 
Natural, 25, 27, 28, 106-7, 
112, 137, 140, 151, 176. 



K. 
Kindergarten classes, 54, 
110, 115. 



Lesson courses, see Curri- 
culum. 
Material, 106, 140, 145, 154, 

177, 179, 190. 
Side lights, 186. 
Library books, 200, 201. 
Librarian and Library, 41. 

M. 

Main School Grades, 56, 136. 

Memorization, injurious, 141, 
194. 

Memory Work, 131-2, 141-3, 
156-7. 

Mental growth, 16, 18, 21, 
24, 26-7, 112-4, 118, 120, 
128-9, 137, 152, 159, 167. 

Methods at different ages, 
107, 130, 149, 161, 171, 
174, 180, 185, 196. 

Missionary instruction, 96, 
142-4, 156, 195. 

Moral Development, 17, 18, 
22, 25-6, 28, 106, 129, 131, 
138, 147, 151. 
Crisis, age of, 24, 151. 

Museum for the School, 
202. 

Music, devotional and educa- 
tional, 86-9, 92-3, 119, 
131-2, 142-3, 177. 

N. 

Nature, as lesson material, 
116, 127. 

O. 

Object teaching, 127. 

Offerings, 90, 94. 

Order in school, and class, 

see Discipline. 
Organization, 30, 44, 65. 



INDEX. 



227 



P. 

Paid Teachers, 52. 

Papers for the School, 202. 

Pastor's Relation to School, 

2, 4, 5, 31, 34, 37-9. 

Relation to Child, 3, 31. 

Pedagogy, essential in right 
methods, 101-8, 113-4, 
120-8, 133-5, 139, 147-9, 
158-168, 171, 174, 180-9, 
202, 206-8. 

Personality central in in- 
struction, 83, 189, 209, 
213. 

Physical growth, 15, 18, 20, 
22-7, 111, 151. 

Pictures as lesson mate- 
rial, 131, 134, 160, 163-5, 
177. 

Prayer, the teaching of, 114, 
153. 

Primary Department, 56, 
109, 128. 

Prizes, see Rewards, 

Public School intruction 
must be spiritualized, 
133. 

Pupils, who should be? 62-5. 
As repeaters, 63. 
Educational activity of, see 
Activity. 

R. 
Religious Development, 25- 

8, 114, 138, 152. 
Rewards and prizes, 74. 

S. 
School buildings, 76, 77, 79. 
Secretary and Treasurer, 

40, 72. 
Self-realization, 16, 21, 24, 

111, 151. 
Sexual development, 22-3, 

26. 
Social development, 16-7, 21, 

25, 27-8. 



Spiritual instruction, 3, 4, 

98, 114. 
Special Services, 90, 92. 
Stories, as lesson material, 

106, 115-9, 121-8, 131. 
Story-telling, art of, 120, 

127, 135. 
Substitute Teachers, 53. 
Suggestions as a Method, 

129, 130, 137, 152. 
Sunday School, Aim, 5, 97- 
100. 
Buildings, 76, 77, 79. 
Classes, 42, 57, 82. 
Support, 94 
Time table, 70. 
Unity of, 42. 
Vacations, 82. 
Visitors, 61. 
Without Classes, 82. 
Superintendent, 33, 35, 37- 
9, 68, 71. 

T. 

Teachers, duties of, 47-9, 57, 

70-5, 210-2. 
How obtained, 44, 46, 51-2. 
How trained, 60-1, 204, 208, 

210. 
Meetings, 204, 206, 208. 
Preparation of, 120-8, 132, 

144, 146-7, 150, 157-8. 
Promoting, with class, 55. 
Qualifications, 45-52. 
Substitutes, 53-4. 
U. 

Uniform lessons, 198. 
Unit in Administration is 

what ? 42. 
Unity in instruction, 104. 
V. 

Vacations in Sunday School 
Work, 82. 

W. 
Week-day discipline, 74, 79. 
Worship, 84, 85, 89. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

HOW TO STUDY THE LIFE OF CHRIST 

(Fourth Edition.) 
From Teachers and Students. 

"I only wish I could put a copy of it in the hands of 
every Sunday School Teacher. I only wish I had had it my- 
self in the days when I was stumblingly trying to help those 
who wished to see Jesus." 

"I was exceedingly interested in your plan [of dividing 
the Life of Christ], for I have wrestled many years with what 
I fancied my own stupidity along the lines of the 'yearly' divi- 
sions, and have always made a failure of it. Your book has 
already helped me." 

"Having the four Gospels as a part of my own subject of 
instruction, I have given special thought to the subject, and 
am familiar with all the well-known methods of division; 
therefore, I can appreciate the value of this simple and natural 
arrangement. I prefer it to all others and have adopted it. 
. . . I trust it will be widely known and used, as it de- 
serves to be." 

"Your book is easily the best of the kind I have ever seen. 
. . . Successfully to have struck out a new path in a field 
where so many have gone before is a really remarkable achieve- 
ment." 

"During the last fifty years as I taught the Scriptures I 
have sought the best writers. . . . When I had looked over 
'How to Study/ etc., I was so enraptured with it I could not 
lay it down until it was gone entirely through. Many things 
and sayings of Christ that had puzzled me in former years 
were now made plain, and I sent for four copies to give to as 
many friends." 

12mo, Cloth, 15 cts. 

The above Manual, and any book it commends, 

for sale by 

THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. 
MILWAUKEE, WIS. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

HOW SHALL WE WORSHIP GOD? 

a series of 

Pen Pictures of the Development of Christian 
Worship. 

From Its Readers. 

"I have greatly enjoyed its pages, and have been carried 
far into the midnight hours by its easy and attractive style. 
You have imparted to a subject, which I always thought dry, 
a delightful human interest. The Chapter on the Worship in 
the Catacombs especially impressed me." 

"I am delighted with the simple, direct style with which 
you have treated the subject. I think it is a book which will 
especially impress the young. I am going to read it, in chap- 
ters, to my Young Communicants' Class, which I have just 
organized, for the purpose of educating them in the Church's 
ways." 

"I have just finished reading 'How Shall We Worship 
God ?' The effect on my mind is the same that I received from 
reading 'How to Study the Life of Christ'; namely, I wish I 
had had it fifty years ago. It exalts the Book of Common 
Prayer as no work I have ever read upon it has done. 

12mo, Cloth, 80 cents net. By mail, 87 cents. 

The above Manual, and any book commended by it, 



FOR SALE BY 

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